Democratic Senator Who Called Bitcoin An Ideal Choice For Criminals Found Guilty Of Accepting Bribes In Gold, Cash And Luxury Car

Democratic Senator Who Called Bitcoin an Ideal Choice for Criminals Found Guilty of Accepting Bribes in the Form of Gold, Cash, and Luxury Cars

Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who once denounced Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) as “an ideal choice for criminals,” has pleaded guilty to accepting gold and fiat currency as bribes during his corruption trial.

What Happened: “This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz. This was not politics as usual; this was politics for profit,” Attorney Damian Williams said in a Justice Department news release Tuesday.

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Menendez has denied the charges and will appeal to a higher court, according to Reuters.

The case involves allegations that Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, received hundreds of dollars from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors ranging from watering down criminal investigations to preserving their business monopolies.

Why It Matters: Interestingly, the influential senator who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee had expressed concerns about the role of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in aiding ransomware and other cyberattacks back in 2017.

See also: According to Cathie Wood, holding 6 Ethereum (ETH) can make you a millionaire, here are the tips on why that might be true.

“Due to the anonymous nature of Bitcoin transactions, the digital currency is an ideal choice for criminals,” the senator wrote in a letter to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Menendez also co-sponsored legislation to reduce the risks of El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin. “Bitcoin could open the door to corruption in El Salvador,” he said.

Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $65,693.11, up 3.41% over the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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This article Democratic Senator Who Called Bitcoin a Perfect Pick for Criminals Found Guilty of Accepting Bribes in the Form of Gold, Cash, and Luxury Cars was originally published on Benzinga.com