Two of the three models at the center of senator Robert Menendez’ bribery trial took the stand on Tuesday to testify about US visas he allegedly helped them obtain.
Ukrainian Svitlana Buchyk and Brazilian Rosiell Polanco gave evidence at a court in Newark about their dealings with Menendez, who is accused of granting official favors for his friend Saloman Melgen in return for gifts and campaign donations.
While Polanco accepted that the senator intervened after her visa was initially turned down, Buchyk denied Menendez had anything to do with her getting into the US.
Rosiell Polanco, a Brazilian model who came to the US in 2008, testified that her initial visa application was turned down – then accepted after Menendez intervened
Polanco (left and right) came to America at the request of Saloman Melgen, Menendez’ friend who she was dating at the time, along with her sister Korall
‘Nothing has to do with the senator, nothing,’ she told jurors, according to NJ.com.
Buchyk said she had met Melgen at a bar in Spain ‘a long time ago’, and had heard him mention Menendez but only as ‘his hermano, his brother.’
She testified that she did not know he was a senator until later, and only met him at a bar in Miami after she arrived in the US.
On that occasion she admitted Melgen introduced him as the person who helped her get the visa, but she believed he was joking.
Meanwhile Polanco, who applied to come to the US on a tourist visa in 2008 along with her sister Korall, told how she applied with the support of a letter from the senator to the consul general.
Ukrainian Svitlana Buchyk also testified on Tuesday, saying that Menendez had ‘nothing’ to do with her getting a visa and that she only met him after arriving in America
Menendez is also accused of procuring a visa for Juliana Lopes Leite, a model who was also dating Melgen at the time she arrived in this country in 2008
At her initial visa interview the interviewer did not properly review the paperwork, she said, and the application was turned down.
Polanco said she reached out to Melgen, who said he would speak with Menendez.
The model and her sister were then called for a second interview at a less busy time and went straight to the counter to have their application checked, she said.
The interviewer took a much more thorough look at their paperwork, and then granted their applications.
On Monday Mark Lopes, Menendez’ former aide, also testified about Polanco’s visa application, saying the Democrat senator had made an urgent request to speak with the US ambassador to Brazil about the issue.
The issue was so pressing it even appeared on an internal memo alongside issues such as ‘Cuba Policy’ and ‘Pakistan/Afghanistan meeting’, jurors were told.
Menendez accepts doing favors for Melgen (pictured), but claims this was done because they are close friends and not in return for payment
After Polanco’s visa was granted, Lopes then wrote an email saying: ‘In my view, this is only due to the fact that [Menendez] intervened.’
Menendez is also accused of trying to quash an FBI investigation into Medicade fraud that eventually saw Melgen convicted on 61 counts.
Prosecutors allege that he also tried to influence the Dominican government to change its port security system in a way that would benefit a business Melgen partially owned.
Lawyers for Menendez accept that he offered official help to Melgen, but say this was because of a decades-long friendship, and not in return for payment.
He could face 20 years in prison on the fraud charge if he is convicted. The trial is expected to last between six and eight weeks.