The seven-acre gated community on the Caribbean Sea also boasts the top-rated golf course in the Dominican Republic, six international restaurants, a security staff of 800, and access to elite sports like pheasant shooting, Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, the resort’s president, told a Newark federal jury.
"We import the eggs and cultivate them," Rosenberg explained when the judge asked, somewhat incredulously, if there are pheasants in the island nation.
"You cultivate the eggs to shoot them?" the judge said in disbelief.
Rosenberg was called to the witness stand by Department of Justice prosecutors looking to prove that Menendez’s access to the resort was a bribe provided to him by his rich opthalmologist pal, Dr. Salomon Melgen, who owns a home in Casa de Campo.
Melgen, who bought the house for close to half a million in the 1990s, has denied that the home was a bribe, describing it as a modest getaway for the doctor and his close friends and family.
But Rosenberg painted a picture of a tropical paradise with private white-sand beaches, shuttle service to a nearby island, access to a spa and a 240-room hotel for guests.
He said there are 1,850 private houses on the resort ‐ some of which cost over $10 million. Rosenberg estimated that homes in Melgen’s neighborhood are worth up to $2.5 million.