What to Know
- NJ Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted by a grand jury on federal bribery charges stemming from their relationship with three businessmen, prosecutors said, including possible dealings with an admitted felon
- Prosecutors were said to be looking into whether a businessman who faced more than a dozen counts of bank fraud gave gold bars and cash worth more than $400,000 to the state's senior senator and his wife
- The issue of whether Menendez improperly accepted gold bars is just one part of the investigation. Officials had been looking into whether Menendez improperly took gifts, including use of a Mercedes and a luxury D.C. apartment, from the owners of a business that later won an exclusive government contract
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife were indicted by a grand jury on federal bribery charges stemming from their relationship with three businessmen, according to court filings, including possible dealings with an admitted felon and the authoritarian regime of Egypt.
The indictment unsealed Friday morning by prosecutors with the Southern District of New York revealed corruption allegations as brazen as they are breathtaking. Prosecutors allege Menendez received cash, gold bars, payments towards a home mortgage, compensation for a low or no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other items of value from businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
A search of the couple's home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, said prosecutors, who announced the charges against the powerful 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury.
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The indictment comes after Menendez had been under investigation for more than a year, as prosecutors were said to be looking into whether a businessman who faced more than a dozen counts of bank fraud gave hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars and gifts to the state's senior senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez.
At the time of the pricey gifts were handed off, according to court documents, Daibes was facing federal bank fraud charges that could have landed him up to a decade in federal prison. The businessman had allegedly lied about a $1.8 million loan from Mariner's Bank where he served as chairman.
Investigators with the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation were looking into whether Menendez offered to contact the Justice Department to try to help Daibes, a New Jersey developer and one-time bank chairman — as well as longtime friend of the senator. Prosecutors said that in exchange for cash payments and gifts, Daibes asked Menendez to interfere with the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Phil Selinger. The alleged goal was for federal prosecutors to go easy on Daibes.
U.S. Attorney Selinger was recused from that case.
After Menendez called a government official about Daibes’ case, according to the indictment, his wife was given a Mercedes-Benz convertible by Uribe and Hana, both friends of the senator and his wife. The indictment says that after the purchase was complete, Nadine Menendez texted her husband to say: “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” with a heart emoji.
The indictment stated that just days after his wife texted Daibes thanking him for "Christmas in January," Menendez did a Google search for "kilo of gold price."
The federal grand jury in Manhattan heard testimony from witnesses before handing up the indictment. The investigation into the senator is believed to have started back in 2019.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claimed that "Menendez and his wife engaged in a corrupt relationship" with the three businessmen, alleging the senator agreed to "use his power and influence to protect and enrich those businessmen and to benefit the Government of Egypt."
In response to the indictment, Menendez said that "forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave," going after what he called an "active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists." He also criticized the prosecution as he thoroughly denied the charges.
"The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent. They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met," read a statement from Menendez. "I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent...[prosecutors] wrote these charges as they wanted; the facts are not as presented."
David Schertler, a lawyer for Menendez’s wife, said his client "denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court.”
There was no answer at the couple's Englewood Cliffs home.
Daibes' attorney, Tim Donohue, said his client would be "completely exonerated of all charges."
The issue of whether Menendez improperly accepted gold bars is just one part of the investigation. Investigators were also probing his connections and possible gifts he received from a halal meat company that later won an exclusive government contract in Egypt.
The indictment alleges that Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps to secretly help Egypt, including ghost-writing a letter on behalf of Egypt pushing other senators to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to the country.
In April 2020, shortly after meeting with an Egyptian official, authorities allege, Menendez lobbied then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to increase American engagement in stalled negotiations involving Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to build a dam over the Nile River, a key foreign policy issue for Egypt.
As NBC New York first reported, officials had previously been looking into whether Menendez or his now wife improperly took gifts, including use of a Mercedes and a luxury D.C. apartment from the owners of a New Jersey business. That business, IS EG Halal, won an exclusive contract with the Egyptian government to perform all Halal meat inspection for the county, even though the firm had no prior experience.
The New Jersey company being named the sole company to certify that imported meat met religious requirements surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal.
Investigators sought to know if Menendez used his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees billions in aid to Egypt, to help that New Jersey firm get the contract in exchange for gifts.
The switch happened the same year that Menendez became engaged to Nadine Arslanian, an acquaintance of the new halal certification company’s owner, Hana, of Edgewater.
Records show Arslanian, 56, was battling foreclosure on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez got engaged it began a period of financial turnaround for Arslanian, a former marketer for a medical company.
Within weeks of their engagement, she incorporated a business, Strategic International Business Consultants LLC, according to state records. Her foreclosure case was dismissed soon after. The following year, her assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, according to a Senate disclosure form amended by Menendez in March of 2022.
Between April and June of 2022, the couple cashed out at least part of their precious metal holdings, forms show, selling between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of gold bars, while keeping at least $250,000 worth of them.
The indictment also says Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and pressured an official as the USDA for helping businessman Hana and the government of Egypt. The court document states Menendez and his wife made a "promise that Menendez would, among other things, use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt, Hana promised, among other things, to put Nadine Menendez on the payroll of his company in a low-or-no-show job."
A spokesperson for Hana said the charges "have absolutely no merit." A spokesperson for IS EG Halal has issued a denial of ever giving the senator any gifts and said they won the Egyptian contact on their merits. As NBC News first reported, federal investigators previously seized the phone devices of Hana.
A federal court filing shows that in Nov. 2019, the FBI searched IS EG Halal headquarters and Hana’s residence. According to a filing by the Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, federal agents at that time seized cellphones, computers, tablets, USBs, business documents, notepads, a photo album, $5,943 dollars in cash, jewelry and Hana’s passport. Most of those items were later returned to Lustberg two months later.
Prosecutors said that Menendez and the other defendants are scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in lower Manhattan.
A source close to Menendez told NBC New York he is stepping down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the case. Rules for the Senate Democratic caucus say that any member who is charged with a felony must step aside from a leadership position.
Menendez has not given any indication that he plans to resign from the Senate — but that doesn't mean others, even those in his own party, haven't called for him to step down. The most damning call came from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who called the allegations against the senator "deeply disturbing" and presented a risk to national security.
"The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation," Murphy said in a statement.
Congressman Andy Kim echoed those sentiments, while fellow Congressman Jeff Van Drew didn't go quite as far. He called the accusations "extremely disturbing" and said Menendez will have our day in court.
Menendez rebuffed those calls to resign late Friday, vowing instead to keep serving his New Jersey constituents.
“Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades. This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along. It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere," Menendez said in a statement.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986. He first won a school board seat at 20 years old, then subsequently was elected mayor of Union City, to the state Assembly and Senate, and later to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he spent more than a decade. In 2006, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate after Jon Corzine resigned to become governor. He was elected to a full term later that year, and re-elected in 2012 and 2018.
The latest indictment is unrelated to the earlier charges that alleged Menendez accepted lavish gifts to pressure government officials on behalf of a Florida doctor. In 2015, a federal grand jury indicted Menendez on bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges, alleging that he had accepted gifts from Salomon Melgen in exchange for using his office to benefit that doctor's interests.
Melgen was convicted of health care fraud in 2017, but President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence.
His 2017 trial ended in a hung jury, and in early 2018 the government opted not to retry him after a judge threw out some of the counts in the indictment. After he was cleared of the charges, Menendez resumed his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that same year. The Senate Ethics Committee later rebuked Menendez, finding that he had improperly accepted gifts, failed to disclose them and then used his influence to advance Melgen’s personal interests.
But months later, New Jersey voters returned Menendez to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke a Republican lock on power in Washington.
The Senate Historical Office says Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. Menendez faces reelection next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
