El Salvador Bitcoin Critic Sen Menendez Indicted for Corruption

United States Sen Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and one of the top-known critics of Bitcoin (BTC) has just been indicted by a Grand Jury on Federal bribery charges.

The Sen Menendez Travails

Sen Menendez occupies a pivotal position within the United States Senate and is the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee where he has been found to maintain questionable relationships with businessmen from his New Jersey state. 

According to the current indictment against Sen Menendez and his wife, he maintains a “corrupt relationship” with three businessmen where he uses his office to protect them and benefit from the North African nation of Egypt.

According to mainstream media reports, the indictment noted that the bribes involved solid gold bars, cash and mortgage payments.

“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” according to the indictment issued by a grand jury in Manhattan federal court.

While Senator Menendez is tagged a repeat corrupt offender, his story becomes even more interesting when his criticism of the digital currency ecosystem is factored in place. Senator Menendez was a clear opponent of the move by the Central American nation of El Salvador to legitimize Bitcoin as a legal tender back in September 2021.

According to Sen Menendez, “Bitcoin can open the doors of corruption in El Salvador,” a statement that now largely appears to be morally backfiring on him.

Crypto and Fraud, Not so Easy Mix

While the allegations of corruption by Sen Menendez might be too stringent to describe El Salvador’s embrace of Bitcoin, bad elements notably abound in the nascent ecosystem that might cast a bad light on the revolutionary technologies being heralded by the ecosystem.

However, proponents of the technology have often posited that fraud and crypto do not necessarily mix since all transactions carried out on the blockchain are easily traceable to identify any known culprit.

To attest to these claims, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the Department of Justice have brought on numerous enforcement actions in the past few years, underscoring the transparency that is inherent in the industry.