Berliner Tageszeitung - Top US senator guilty of corruption: prosecutors

Robert Menendez, a 70-year-old Democrat from New Jersey, was charged with extortion, obstruction of justice and accepting bribes to perform favors for businessmen with connections to Egypt and Qatar and will be sentenced on October 29.

"The total combined charges carry a maximum potential sentence of 222... years in prison," a spokesman for the Southern District of New York prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The counts on which Menendez was convicted by the jury after less than three days of deliberations included conspiracy to commit bribery, acting as a foreign agent while a public official, and obstruction of justice.

Menendez, who said in June he would run as an independent in November's election, is a career politician and led the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee until the charges were filed. He remains a sitting senator.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow Democrat, called on Menendez to step down.

- Senator 'for sale' -

"In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign," Schumer said.

Menendez shook his head from side to side as the verdict was read out, CNN reported.

Prosecutors have alleged Menendez put his power as a top US senator "up for sale."

In a raid on his New Jersey home, FBI agents were said to have found nearly $500,000 in cash hidden around the house, as well as gold bars worth around $150,000 and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible.

His wife Nadine Menendez, to whom defense lawyers are seeking to shift the blame, has also been charged but will be tried separately as she is receiving treatment for breast cancer.

He was convicted alongside two of the businessmen he allegedly helped -- Egyptian-American Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer.

A third businessman, insurance broker Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March and assisted investigators.

Menendez is said to have interfered in the nomination of New Jersey's prosecutor in a bid to ensure that proceedings were dropped against Daibes and Uribe.

He is also accused of accepting bribes to use his power and influence to enrich his co-conspirators and benefit the government of Egypt, including by helping Hana protect his monopoly on US exports of halal food products to the country.

Hana and Daibes face 85 years and 100 years imprisonment respectively, prosecutors said.

W. Winogradow--BTZ