Sen. Bob Menendez grills Treasury official on curbing illicit finance a month before bribery trial

Sen.

Bob
Menendez
questioned
a
Treasury
Department
official
Tuesday
on
curbing
illegal
finance
as
he
prepares
to
stand

trial
in
a
month
with
his
wife
and
two
other
men
on
federal

bribery
charges.

“I’m
concerned
about
the
exploitation
of
our
litigation
finance
industry
by
foreign
actors,”
the
New
Jersey

Democrat
told
Deputy
Treasury
Secretary
Wally
Adeyemo
at
a
Senate
Banking
Committee
hearing.

Menendez
cited
a
Bloomberg
Law

report
that
showed
Russian
billionaires
with
ties
to
President
Vladimir
Putin
funded
bankruptcy
lawsuits
in
New
York
despite
being
sanctioned
following
the
invasion
of
Ukraine.

Menendez
also
slammed
the
Biden
administration
for
not
stopping
Iran
under
current
sanctions
from
selling
its
oil
to
entities
in
countries
including
China.

“It
doesn’t
take
a
rocket
scientist
to
understand
that
you
can
convert
those
dollars
into
cryptocurrency
and
other
forms
in
order
to
ultimately
have
access
to
them,”
Menendez
said.

Adeyemo
said
it
is
almost
impossible
for
Iran
to
get
access
to
the
money
from
oil
it
sells
using
the
traditional
financial
system.

However,
he
said
Congress
needs
to
act
so
bad
actors
cannot
circumvent
sanctions
by
using
cryptocurrencies.

“We
fear
that
without
congressional
action
to
provide
us
with
necessary
tools,
the
use
of
virtual
assets
by
these
actors
will
only
grow,”
Adeyemo
said
in
his
opening
remarks.

Republican
senators
on
the
committee
attacked
the
Biden
administration
for
its
2023
deal
to

unfreeze
$6
billion
of
Tehran’s
funds
to
be
used
for
humanitarian
assistance
in
exchange
for
the
release
of
political
prisoners
in
Iran.

“Iran
is
not
our
friend.
Venezuela
is
not
our
friend,
President
Biden
keeps
giving
them
money
to
buy
weapons
to
try
to
kill
us,”
said
Sen.
John
Kennedy,
R-La.

Adeyemo
said
that
the
funds,
which
were

blocked
after
Hamas’
terrorist
attack
on
Israel,
have
not
been
sent
to
Iran.

“None
of
that
money
has
gone
to
Iran,
and
that
money
is
not
going
to
go
directly
to
Iran,”
Adeyemo
said.

Menendez
is
set
to
begin
trial
May
6
on
nearly
20
criminal
counts
related
to
allegedly
accepting
hundreds
of
thousands
of
dollars
in
cash,
gold
bars,
and
other
luxury
goods
in
return
for
helping
three
businessmen
in
their
dealings.
He
has
pleaded
not
guilty.

His
wife,
Nadine
Menendez,
and
two
of
the
businessmen,
Wael
Hana
and
Fred
Daibes,
will
be
tried
with
him.

The
fifth
defendant
in
the
case,
Jose
Uribe,
previously
pleaded
guilty
and
agreed
to
assist
prosecutors.

The
senator
is
accused
of,
among
other
things,
providing
sensitive
U.S.

government
information
that
secretly
aided
the
government
of
Egypt,
and
pressuring
a
U.S.
Department
of
Agriculture
official
to
protect
a
business
monopoly
in
Egypt.

Menendez
was
chairman
of
the
Senate
Foreign
Relations
Committee
until
he
was
indicted
in
September.