OPINION:
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What do gold bars, luxury watches and Formula One racing tickets have in common? They’re all part of the reported corruption scheme that brought down Bob Menendez, the once-influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman.
Menendez stepped down from his powerful post days after a jury found him guilty of accepting bribes and using his influence to secure a multimillion-dollar Qatari investment deal. Menendez still denies any wrongdoing. The Justice Department brought no charges against Qatari individuals, but Doha was involved. And that marks another example of the mega-wealthy and corrupt petrostate buying influence in Washington and around the world.
The indictment unveiled against Menendez and his co-defendants in January alleged that the senator accepted bribes from New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes. In return, Daibes reportedly expected that Menendez would “induce” a Qatari investment firm linked to the royal family to invest with him, “including by taking action favorable to the Government of Qatar.”
One such action was a news release drafted by Menendez’s office praising the Qataris as “moral exemplars” because they housed Afghan refugees after the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Never mind that Qatar negotiated that botched withdrawal. Never mind that the government in Doha is a patron to the Taliban and Hamas.
Menendez allegedly passed the text of the statement to Daibes, telling him, “You might want to send to them,” meaning his partners in Qatar. A Qatari investor subsequently informed an unnamed official in Doha that he “received a copy from F” — a likely reference to Fred Daibes.
The next month, prosecutors say that Menendez and Daibes attended a private dinner hosted by the Qatari government. Within days, Menendez reportedly received a message from Daibes with images of luxury watches worth over $23,000 and five words: “How about one of these.”
Months later, a court-authorized search of Menendez’s home turned up no less than 11 bars of gold with serial numbers “indicating they had previously been possessed” by Daibes, as well as envelopes stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars in cash that had the tycoon’s fingerprints on them. (At trial, Daibes did not deny that he gave Menendez gold and cash, but said they were “gifts.” Daibes was found guilty of all charges alongside Menendez in July.)
Daibes may not have been the only conduit for Qatar’s largesse. According to the indictment, Menendez “continued to receive things of value” from the Qataris, including tickets to the 2023 Formula One Grand Prix in Miami, even after securing the investment deal.
Menendez also traveled to Qatar to attend the 2022 World Cup. In an interview, he told the state-run news agency, “Qatar has brought the global community together as one; in my time here I saw great achievements of justice and security.”
Menendez also lauded the purported progress that Qatar had made “in the development of labor rights.” At the time, Qatar was facing heat for exploiting migrant workers by forcing them to work long hours in the desert sun, at times without pay, in order to build stadiums in time for the World Cup. When they did get a reprieve, the workers returned to cramped and squalid living quarters. Yet a senior foreign policy figure on Capitol Hill applauded Qatar for its alleged labor reforms.
Nowhere has Qatar’s practice of buying favor been more apparent than in the events surrounding the 2022 World Cup.
In 2010, soccer’s governing body, FIFA, selected Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup. But this was more of a business transaction than a fair vote. Three weeks before FIFA awarded Doha the 2022 hosting rights, Qatar allegedly offered FIFA a $400 million television contract with state-controlled Al Jazeera. FIFA reportedly received a second $480 million payment from the Qatari government three years later. The Justice Department asserted in a 2020 superseding indictment that FIFA executives “were offered and received bribe payments” to secure hosting privileges for Qatar.
Then, as the 2022 World Cup got underway, a bombshell scandal rocked Europe: Belgian authorities uncovered a Qatari bribery scheme involving European Union officials and more than $1.5 million in cash. Qatar was paying off members of the European Parliament. Leaked documents showed efforts to scrub Qatar’s image by “neutralizing” resolutions critical of Doha and shifting the “narrative in parliament” about Doha’s human rights record, which was under intense scrutiny in the run-up to the World Cup.
The Menendez episode fits with Qatar’s broader strategy of buying clout — sometimes legally, often not — to evade accountability for things like terror finance and human rights abuses. Qatar continues to host the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and reaps the benefits of its status as a major non-NATO ally, even as it backs terrorist groups and violates human rights. To sustain this insane arrangement, Qatar courts U.S. lawmakers and lobbyists as a matter of survival.
Menendez faces up to 222 years in prison. Qatar, however, continues to buy immunity in Washington, Brussels and beyond. Qatar must be held to account. Authorities here in the United States should investigate the Qatari role in this scandal — and put Qatar on notice that there can be no alliances with a partner who relies on bribery to protect its standing.
• Natalie Ecanow is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research institute in Washington focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow her on X @NatalieEcanow and FDD @FDD.
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