Disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has officially traded his Senate seat for a prison bunk, beginning an 11-year sentence for one of the most jaw-dropping public corruption schemes in modern political history.

The 71-year-old ex-senator surrendered Tuesday morning to the Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill—a Pennsylvania prison about two-and-a-half hours from his upscale Englewood Cliffs home—where he’ll spend his so-called golden years behind bars.

The facility includes both a medium-security prison and a minimum-security camp, the latter of which is expected to house Menendez due to the white-collar nature of his crimes.

Menendez’s fall from power was as dramatic as it was shameful. Once a dominant figure in the Senate and a key Democratic power broker, he was convicted last July on all 16 federal counts stemming from a wide-ranging bribery operation involving gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash, and political favors for foreign governments.

The scheme earned him the nickname "Gold Bar Bob"—a label now more enduring than his decades of public service.

Federal prosecutors laid out a damning case: Menendez sold his influence in Washington to line his pockets with bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, benefitting not only his inner circle but also the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

When the FBI raided Menendez’s home in 2022, they found a stunning stash—$480,000 in cash, gold bars worth $150,000, and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible, all hidden in clothing, shoes, bags, and boxes. The raid sealed his fate in the court of public opinion and, ultimately, in federal court.

Still, Menendez has maintained his innocence, even as his wife, Nadine Menendez, was also convicted in the same bribery scheme. She is set to begin her own prison term this September. The couple was spotted just a day before his incarceration visiting a credit union together in New Jersey.

The former senator tried to delay the inevitable. After his sentencing in January, Menendez was allowed to postpone his prison reporting date to "care" for his wife. He also made a last-ditch plea for clemency from President Donald J. Trump, a move unlikely to find sympathy in the current administration. A federal appeals court rejected his request for bail just last week, signaling the courts are no longer entertaining his excuses.

Menendez’s lawyers had painted a portrait of a poor Cuban-American kid who climbed his way to the pinnacle of power, rising from mayor of Union City to the U.S. Senate. But even that American Dream narrative couldn’t overshadow the corruption that turned him into a national embarrassment.

“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense attorney Adam Fee conceded in court.

During sentencing, Menendez attempted a moment of humility, telling the judge, “I am far from a perfect man… I’ve made my fair share of poor choices and errors. I’ve accomplished a lot more good than negative.” But the evidence—and the jury—disagreed.

Prosecutors allege Menendez worked to secure $300 million in U.S. military aid for Egypt, manipulated U.S. policy toward Egypt and Qatar, and tried to derail criminal investigations into his associates Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe. Uribe, one of the co-defendants, turned on the others during trial testimony.

According to the feds, Menendez even used a phony consulting firm to disguise the trail of illicit payments—a classic political laundering operation wrapped in legalese.

Now, surrounded by nearly 1,200 fellow inmates—including infamous figures like New York mob boss James Coonan and "Gas Station Gotti" Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa—Bob Menendez begins a long fall from the marble halls of Congress to the concrete walls of federal prison.