RESORT-ING TO ‘BRIBES’
Inside Sen. Menendez’s paid getaway
Robert Menendez’s stays at the luxurious Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic gave him access to white-sand beaches, a marina filled with expensive yachts and five golf courses, a resort executive testified on Monday at the New Jersey senator’s corruption trial.
The 7-acre gated community on the Caribbean Sea also boasts six international restaurants, a security staff of 800 and access to elite activities, such as pheasant shooting, Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, the resort’s president, told a Newark federal jury.
“We import the eggs and cultivate them,” Rosenberg explained when the judge asked if there are pheasants in the island nation.
“You cultivate the eggs to shoot them?” the judge asked in disbelief.
Rosenberg was called to the witness stand by Department of Justice prosecutors looking to prove that Menendez’s access to the resort was a bribe provided to him by his rich ophthalmologist pal, Dr. Salomon Melgen, who owns a home in Casa de Campo.
Melgen, who bought the house for close to half a million in the 1990s, has denied it was a bribe, describing his place as a modest getaway for friends and family.
But Rosenberg painted a picture of a tropical paradise.
He said there are 1,850 private houses on the resort — some of which cost more than $10 million. Rosenberg estimated that homes in Melgen’s neighborhood are worth up to $2.5 million.
Menendez, 63, is accused of accepting gifts from Melgen, also 63, such as stays at the villa and trips on private jets, in exchange for helping the married doctor with his affairs, including obtaining visas for his three foreign girlfriends and straightening out an $8.9 million tab for overbilling Medicare.
The feds on Monday also called to the stand an executive with the Tortuga Bay Hotel and Punta Cana Resort & Club to testify about the time in 2010 that Menendez stayed in a suite with ocean views as a guest of Melgen and his wife, Flor.
That weekend, the cost of the $765-per-night suite was comped by the resort’s president because Melgen was attending his son’s wedding, the executive, Alberto Abreu told the jury. Still, he testified to documents showing that Melgen shelled out another $766 for other amenities, including golf, bars and restaurants.