The businessman accused of bribing New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez with gold bars funneled tens of thousands of dollars to the family of a mob figure and gave convicted Mafioso free meals at homes and restaurants, an official report on the alleged bribery says.
Fred Daibes was accused in September of soliciting favors from alleged senators, including attempts to interfere in other prosecutions, in return for gold.
The bars were discovered when the FBI raided Menendez’s home in Englewood, NJ, finding them and a jacket stuffed with wads of cash the senator claimed he kept because he feared the government would seize his assets.
Menendez, his wife Nadine Arslanian and Daibes deny all charges. Daibes, 66, has made no public comment except to plead not guilty.
But the developer has been the focus of a major investigation, by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, into corruption in his hometown of Edgewater, NJ, which was published months before the indictment.
Reports in May alleged that he had acquired “massive power” and funneled cash to elected Edgewater politicians in return for influence and contracts.
Fred Daibes poses in front of one of his luxury developments with his antique car collection. The developer has been charged with bribing Sen. Robert Menendez and his wife with gold bars.Chris Marksbury/Special to NorthJersey.com Daibes is accused by New Jersey’s state inspector general of writing checks worth more than $100,000 to a relative of a Genovese crime family figure. He denied wrongdoing and said it was to help them set up a driving school.Chris Marksbury/Special to NorthJersey.com
And it revealed that Daibes wrote personal checks for more than $100,000 to “the son and daughter-in-law of a high-ranking member of the Genovese organized crime family who were key officials in illegal gambling in northern New Jersey in the 2000s” then invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked about them.
Another Genovese partner lived rent-free in one of Daibes’ apartment buildings for 9 years, the report said. And when Daibes sold the building, he paid the man rent for another 4 years. He also ate for free at Dabies restaurant, the report said.
Richard Fischetti, the burglar who got the free house, is also married to city councilman Duane Fischetti, whose son is the Borough Attorney, the report revealed. Fischetti testified that the couple had lived apart for decades.
In a letter from his lawyer to the commission Daibes denied bribery, and said that Genovese-linked criminals who got free accommodation were friends who both needed a second chance at life after serving and estranged from his politician wife.
Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Arslanian both deny allegations that they accepted gold from Fred Daibes in an effort to get favors from the politician. The FBI found this gold bar at Menendez’s home in Englewood, NJ, when they raided it. Prosecutors accused Daibes of using them to bribe senators.US Attorneyâs Office
Fischetti, now 84, was convicted of extortion in the 1980s, contempt in the 1990s then, according to the commission, a “significant gambling operation” in the 2000s.
The developer’s lawyer claimed Daibes was “philanthropic” and that the personal check to the son and son-in-law of another, unnamed, Genovese figure, was to help them start a driving school.
The results of the extraordinary investigation were published in a 34-page report called “Public Matters, Private Interests: An Inquiry into the Ethics and Integrity of Local Government Issues in the Borough of Edgewater.”
It brought a long response from Daibes. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
The report said that Daibes, a millionaire and avid classic car collector, had amassed power and influence “so strong that he wielded influence in local political decisions and other municipal concerns.”
Convicted mafioso Robert Fischetti, now 84, got a free apartment from Daibes for 13 years in this building, then called St. Moritz. Daibes said he’s giving a friend who has served his time a second chance. google maps Duane Fischetti (third from left) was a city councilman in Edgewater at the time her husband Robert got a free house from Daibes. Daibes claims the two broke up when he gave her the free apartment.Facebook
A former mayor told the commission that Daibes had “control over the city for a long time.”
Daibes was born in Lebanon in 1957, the son of displaced Palestinians and spent a small part of his childhood in refugee camps in that country before his family immigrated to New Jersey in 1965, where his father Assad founded an eponymous stone company.
When Daibes was 28, he took over the business, transforming it into Daibes Enterprises, a sprawling group of companies specializing in both residential apartment complexes and corporate offices.
The commission said that Daibes, “a politically astute businessman,” almost single-handedly turned Edgewater, on the Hudson River, into a luxury area for Manhattan commuters, building riverfront high-rises with ornate finishes and marble lobbies and with names like The Alexander. The Duchess and The Saint Moritz – where the Genovese partners got a free house – for the past two decades.
Fred Daibes in federal court in Manhattan where he pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for Egypt.AP Daibes is credited with being a key part of Edgewater’s transformation from an industrial-focused town on the Hudson to a destination for Manhattan commuters.Shutterstock
But he did so by rewarding local officials who did his bidding, and punishing others who stood in his way, the report claimed. Along the way he paid his construction company workers in cash for 18 months,
“Several government actions taken in Edgewater to benefit Daibes will come at a high cost to local taxpayers, public coffers and community reputation,” the report said.
Among his findings: Daibes gave one mayor, Michael McPartland, a below-market rental apartment in one of his luxury buildings as soon as he took office in 2015, while another mayor who tried to sue him testified that he was the subject of retaliation.
Daibes denied wrongdoing in both cases. McPartland said the commission did not take into account his view of the waste in concluding that he was paying below market rates.
Fred Daibes won a municipal contract to renovate the Edgewater Veterans Field Park that was contaminated with environmental waste. His company’s efforts worsened the situation, according to national reports.Marko Georgiev/NorthJersey.com
The report also focused on how Daibes’ firm, Waterside Construction, won a $7.1 million contract in June 2012 to clean up Veterans Field, a 27-acre waterfront park that had been closed since the previous year because of environmental pollution — and ended up costing the city nearly $30m for ruining it.
At first, other contractors allowed him to take clean fill from other construction sites, but the report claims that when the source dried up, Daibes’ firm used contaminated fill, making the site even more toxic than before. Daibes said the filler used by his firm was certified clean and there was still litigation over the issue.
And when Mayor James Delaney, who initially supported the Daibes on the park project, moved to sue, the mayor’s wife Bridget was fired from her job of 14 years at a restaurant owned by the developer.
“He told the Commission’s lawyer under oath that his family, including the couple’s children, became outcasts in society,” according to the report. Daibes’ lawyer said he had quit and there were no plans for revenge.
New Jersey developer Fred Daibes poses inside one of his luxury developments in Edgewater where he helped transform the waterfront into an upscale neighborhood for Manhattan commuters.Carmine Galasso/NorthJersey.com file photo
The cost to clean up the mess exceeded $28 million plus more than $1.1 million in legal fees, and “local property taxes increased due to costs associated with the field failure,” according to the report.
In addition to being charged in the Menendez case, Daibes was indicted in 2018 on bank fraud charges.
Prosecutors allege he was trying to get Menendez to help him in the case when he gave the senator a gold bar.
Daibes later took a deal, pleading guilty to one count of fraud, but last month a federal judge overturned that deal, putting him on track for trial in that case as well. He did not enter any new pleas to the charge.
Menendez and his wife are also accused of taking cash and a luxury car for acting as unregistered Egyptian foreign agents and helping two other men, Wael “Will” Hana and Jose Uribe, which they deny. Both men have also denied all charges.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
