Fred Daibes

Fred Daibes (born 1956/1957^[1]) is an American real estate developer. He was a key figure in the revitalization of Edgewater, New Jersey, and the development of the Gold Coast along the Hudson River.^[2]

He and his parents immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1969 and his family settled in Edgewater, New Jersey. He graduated from Leonia High School.^[3] Daibes got his start working in a masonry company with his father and expanded into contracting and then real-estate development in the 1980s, with projects becoming successively larger and more luxurious.^[4]

In November 2013, a group of four people broke into the apartment where Daibes and his wife were sleeping, beat them and stole $2 million in cash, along with jewelry and gold.^[5]

In May 2023, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation released a report that found that elected and appointed New Jersey officials deliberately worked to benefit Daibes with some of them receiving business contracts and one receiving a discounted rent for a luxury apartment.^[6][7]

Daibes is accused of giving senator Robert Menendez and his wife bribes of cash and nine bars of gold bullion in exchange for the senator’s help in a bank fraud case Daibes faced by installing a US attorney who would likely make the prosecution less severe.^[2][1] Some of the gold bars found in the FBI search of the Menendez home had serial numbers connected to the November 2013 robbery from Daibes' apartment.^[8]

Fred Daibes was sentenced to 3 years for fraud, to be served concurrently with 7-year bribery sentence.^[9]