The serial numbers on some of the gold found by the FBI during a June 2022 raid on Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs, NJ, home match identifiers that Fred Daibes reported to police after a 2013 armed robbery, according to NBC News.

Robbers made off with $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars from Daibes’ Edgewater, NJ, home during the 2013 heist, the outlet reports.

Police later nabbed four suspects and recovered the stolen gold.

The matching serial numbers indicate that authorities have directly linked at least some of the gold found in Menendez’s home to Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and Menendez fundraiser.

[Just to be clear: these bars were not stolen property at the time Menendez would have received them. That would have been WAY too much fun. However, thanks to the heist and the recovery by the FBI, those gold bars are firmly linked to Daibes, which makes Menendez’ possession of them very, very difficult to explain in any way that makes it legal. You’d think Daibes would have laundered those bars first before paying Menendez off with gold bullion. — Ed]