President Nayib Bukele, who criticized at some point the legislator, asked that the FBI investigate El Salvador for the law that established bitcoin as legal tender.

The Salvadoran president reacted to the news on social networks: “This guy asked for an investigation against us. He ended up being accused.”

The publication specified that the case, which also includes the senator’s wife, examines payments he received in exchange for certain favors and that include not only cash, but also luxury goods, including a car, according to the Justice Department.

He added “the searches have already resulted in the discovery of $480,000 in cash, kept in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe. Authorities have also located gold bars worth another $100,000.”

Indicted a few years ago, he was accused of favoring the interests of a Dominican businessman residing in Florida.

At that time, a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him on multiple counts for favors he did for a friend, Dr. Salomón Melgen, a Dominican ophthalmologist whom Donald Trump pardoned in 2021. The pardon was proposed and supported by Menendez himself.

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