Senator Bob Menendez's wife sold nearly $250,000 worth of gold bars and coins just weeks before FBI agents raided her Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022, telling her jeweler she needed money to pay bills, the jeweler testified Wednesday.

Jeweler Vasken Khorozian told jurors that Nadine Menendez visited his Edgewater jewelry store three times between March and May 2022 to sell four one-kilogram bars, each valued at about $60,000, and four 24-karat American Eagle coins valued at $7,200. The first time, she told him she was having “financial problems” but did not explain her subsequent visits, he testified.

“I don’t ask customers any questions,” Khorozian said.

At that time, the ongoing FBI corruption investigation had become known, and Senator unveiled the gold bars on the wealth disclosure forms required by the Senate, and the couple was Apartment Search for multimillion-dollar mansions in Englewood Cliffs, Alpine and Saddle River, according to previous testimony.

But prosecutors are not able to prove that the bars were bribes from the couple's co-defendants, businessman Wael Hana and real estate developer Fred Daibes, because Khorozian failed to document the serial numbers of the gold Nadine Menendez brought him. Investigators have linked some of the 13 other gold bars they seized from the Menendezes' home in June 2022 to Daibes and Hana based on their serial numbers.

Khorozian said he didn't bother recording the serial numbers because he trusted Nadine Menendez and knew she had a close relationship with Daibes and Hana, whom he considered close friends.

“If I had known then what I know now, I would do it differently,” Khorozian said.

Wednesday's gold bar testimony captivated jurors, who had spent the morning listening to a lengthy back-and-forth with an FBI specialist about the details of more than $486,000 in cash that agents seized from the senator's home. Some of the bills are stamped with data from the 1990s and 1980s, which defense lawyers say shows they were hoarded for decades by a senator who distrusted banks. Prosecutors say the stash is full newer banknotes, including many that came into circulation from 2018, when the alleged bribery scheme began.

Khorozian told jurors that he sold the gold Nadine Menendez brought him to a jeweler in the diamond district on Manhattan's 47th Street. Both men received a commissionwhich total almost $1,000 per 1-kilogram bar. But the loss did not bother her, and the fluctuating gold prices did not seem to interest her either, said Khorozian.

“If you need money, sell it. If you don't need it, shut up and sit there.” She wanted to sell”, He said.

He told the jury that Nadine Menendez told him the gold bars came from her family. Prosecutors said they came from Daibes and Hana. Daibes wanted Menendez to use his political power to end his federal bank fraud case and help him land a lucrative investment from a member of the Qatari royal familywhile Hana wanted the Senator’s influence maintain a monopoly against the export of halal beef to Egypt and interfered in a government insurance fraud case and a related investigation by threatening his friends, prosecutors said.

Under cross-examination by Menendez's attorney Adam Fee, Khorozian told jurors that the senator had never visited his jewelry store and had never bought or sold anything from him. He also stated: During cross-examination by Hana's attorney, Ricardo Solano Jr., it became clear that Hana was a big spender and a regular shopper at his store and was known to give gold and jewelry as gifts to his family, friends and colleagues. In one sale in June 2021 alone, Hana spent $40,810 on 22 one-ounce gold bars, documents show.

Accusations of interference

The jury also heard from Vikas Khanna, the first assistant U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

Federal prosecutors in New York have said the senator interfered with the New Jersey office’s proceedings against Daibes, who was charged for bank fraud in 2018. When Menendez's friend Philip Sellinger, who became U.S. Attorney in New Jersey in December 2021, was removed from Daibes' case due to a conflict of interest, Menendez called Khanna in January 2022. The shortly after Sellinger appointed Khanna as his first assistant and the Justice Department assigned Khanna to the Daibes caseKhanna said.

The conversation began with small talk about Khanna’s brother, the congressman from California isand Menendez congratulated Khanna on his new position, Khanna told jurors.

The senator then complimented two defense attorneys, Khanna said.

“I know you will have cases with some Really “They are great lawyers,” Menendez told him, referring to Lawrence Lustberg and Michael Critchley, Khanna said.

Lustberg represented Daibes in his bank fraud case and is now representing Hana. Critchley represented Elvis Parra, a trucking company owner whose insurance fraud case, according to prosecutors, Hana and his friend Jose Uribe had planned to be fired.

The testimony supported prosecutors' claims that Menendez was attempting to interfere in ongoing criminal cases. But under cross-examination by Daibes' attorney, César de Castro, Khanna admitted that Menendez did not mention Daibes or his criminal case or ask him to intervene.

Menendez Attorney Avi Weitzman further undermined Khanna's testimony when he showed that Khanna had a closer relationship with Menendez than he initially admitted during questioning by prosecutor Lara Pomerantz. Khanna initially said he had only spoken to the senator two or three times in brief phone calls. Khanna later acknowledged that early in the pandemic, he, along with his wife and two other Menendez supporters, hosted a virtual fundraiser for the senator that raised about $60,000.

“I didn’t do this personally,” Khanna said.

He also acknowledged that his brother, US Representative Ro Khanna, to Menendez.

Prosecutors are expected to conclude their case on Thursday, nearly seven weeks after the trial began, with several witnesses testifying, including two more FBI agents. Defense attorneys have said it could take a week or two to present their case, and then the case goes to the jury. The case is several weeks behind schedule; Judge Sidney H. Stein dismissed a juror on Wednesday because she was scheduled to leave on a non-refundable cruise with her family on Thursday.

Nadine Menendez was also chargedbut Stein agreed to postpone her trial until at least August due to a recent breast cancer diagnosis that required medical treatment.