Democrat Menendez' criminal activity reaches far beyond underage hookers

01.26.2014

SHOCKER: Menendez unaware of probe into his ties to former Ecuadorean bankers

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez said Friday that he is unaware of any federal investigation into his interactions with a pair of former Ecuadorean bankers living in the United States.

“I am not aware of any official inquiry in this matter,” he said, a day after NBC New York reported that the U.S. Justice Department was looking into the Democratic senator’s ties to the bankers.

The Record and Herald News were unable to confirm on Friday whether an investigation was under way.

The two former bankers, brothers named Roberto and William Isaias, have lived in Florida since 2000. They fled Ecuador after their bank, Filibanco, one of the country’s largest financial institutions, collapsed amid a banking crisis in the late 1990s.

Ecuadorean officials have sought extradition of the two men for more than a decade. The country accuses them of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of bailout money before fleeing to Florida. In 2008, Ecuador seized hundreds of assets belonging to the brothers, including several television stations. The Ecuadorean government said it was trying to recoup some of the money taken by the Isaiases, but critics contend that the move was an attempt to tighten government control over the South American country’s news media.

The Isaiases say they did nothing wrong and argue that their case was politicized by the Ecuadorean government. Menendez, speaking at a news conference in Jersey City on Friday, seemed to side with the brothers.

“Just because a corrupt Ecuadorean government declares these people to be fugitives does not mean that they are truly criminals,” he said. “Ecuadoreans simply do not benefit from the same level of justice we enjoy here in the U.S.”

Menendez said his office had received a request for help with the immigration process from the Isaias family. But they have received no special treatment, he insisted, despite a $2,300 donation from Robert Isaias’ son to Menendez’s 2012 reelection campaign.

“If people support my views and support my advocacy, they obviously may feel the desire to contribute,” the senator said.

“People generally contribute to people with whom they share their views. We don’t ever act because of a contribution.”

Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, added that it was the George W. Bush administration that first gave the brothers visas, and both Bush and President Obama have refused to comply with Ecuador’s extradition requests.

As recently as June, Ecuadorean officials were pushing for the Isaiases’ extradition. When Vice President Joe Biden urged Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa not to give asylum to the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Correa accused the United States of hypocrisy, arguing it should extradite the Isaiases before asking Ecuador to help the United States to arrest Snowden.

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