Gold bars, cash-filled closets and a posh Benz: 7 bombshells in Sen. Menendez indictment

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez gave “sensitive U.S. government information” to Egypt, meddled in the appointment of a federal prosecutor and tried to stop multiple criminal inquiries into his wealthy friends, federal authorities alleged Friday in a blockbuster corruption indictment.

In return, the New Jersey Democrat and his wife were lavished with fancy dinners, a Mercedes convertible, gold bars and envelopes of cash, federal authorities said.

In a forceful public statement, Menendez denied wrongdoing, saying he was the victim of an “active smear campaign” by unnamed operatives attempting to make the routine work of a senator appear corrupt.

The stunning charges mark the second time Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator, has been indicted on corruption charges after a trial on similar accusations in 2017 ended with a hung jury. Federal authorities later dismissed the case rather than taking it to a retrial.

Menendez now faces a fresh indictment, along with his wife and three New Jersey businessmen accused of bribing the powerful senator.

The 39-page charging document unsealed Friday paints an eye-popping picture of flagrant corruption from the only U.S. senator ever to be indicted twice, peppered with images of gold bars, expensive dinners and piles of cash collected during the federal probe.

Cash in the closets

When federal investigators searched Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022, they found cash everywhere, according to the indictment.

Over $480,000 was stashed in envelopes, closets and a safe. Thousands of dollars in $20 and $100 bills were even found stuffed into the pockets of one of Menendez’s jackets bearing the logo of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Menendez is a member, images included in the indictment show.

The senator’s name is embroidered on the chest.

The indictment includes images of the cash seized from Menendez’s home.

Some of the envelopes of cash contained the fingerprints and DNA of Fred Daibes, an Edgewater-based real estate mogul known for fancy developments along New Jersey’s “gold coast,” prosecutors allege.

Daibes, one of the three men accused of bribing the senator, pleaded guilty last year to taking part in an insider loan scam at a bank he founded in a separate case.

Stamped gold bars

Authorities allege Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, also accepted bribes from either Daibes or Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, in the form of gold bars. Hana has also been charged with bribing the senator.

Along with the cash, authorities searching Menendez’s home last year turned up several one-kilogram gold bars.

According to the indictment, Menendez and his wife returned from a trip to Egypt in 2021 and were picked up at the airport by Daibes’ driver.

The next day, prosecutors say, the senator did some Google searching.

“How much is one kilo of gold worth,” Menendez allegedly searched online.

Prosecutors say the gold seized from Menendez’s house was worth more than $150,000.

Federal prosecutors say these gold bars were among the bribes accepted by Sen. Robert Menendez in an influence-peddling scheme.

A Mercedes convertible

In 2019, Menendez’s wife got her “dream” car – a black 2019 Mercedes convertible with a soft top and a $60,000 price tag.

To pay for it, prosecutors allege, Menendez meddled in several criminal investigations involving Hana and the third New Jersey businessman charged in the indictment, Jose Uribe.

In return for the car, prosecutors claim, Menendez “agreed and sought to interfere in a New Jersey state criminal prosecution” of one of Uribe’s friends and a separate inquiry involving one of Uribe’s employees.

“The deal is to kill and stop all investigation,” Uribe allegedly wrote to Hana.

Menendez contacted a top official in the state Attorney General’s Office “in an attempt, through advice and pressure,” to get him to drop the probe, the indictment claims. The unnamed official considered Menendez’s actions “inappropriate and did not agree to intervene.”

Still, Arslanian got to keep her car. After the purchase was finalized, Uribe allegedly texted her, “are you happy?”

“I will never forget this,” she allegedly replied. She then sent a photo of the car to her husband — one that would end up in their indictment.

Prosecutors say this Mercedes was given to Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife as a bribe.

Influence peddling

Menendez is accused of influence peddling on behalf of Daibes. That included pushing a candidate for New Jersey’s federal U.S. Attorney’s Office who could derail Daibes’ prosecution.

It didn’t work.

But the indictment details multiple instances in which Menendez allegedly tried to derail criminal probes connected to the three businessmen charged alongside him.

Giving info to Egypt

The sordid tale contained in the indictment spans from Trenton to Cairo.

Menendez, the longtime chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is accused of abusing his position to help out Hana, a friend of his wife’s with ties to the Egyptian government.

During dinner at a “high-end” restaurant in May 2018, Menendez allegedly shared “nonpublic information about the United States’s provision of military aid to Egypt” with Hana.

A U.S. sale of ammunition to Egypt had apparently been tied up in Washington and needed Menendez’s sign-off.

Shortly after the dinner, Hana texted an unnamed Egyptian official.

“The ban on small arms and ammunition to Egypt has been lifted,” the message read, according to the indictment. “That means sales can begin. That will include sniper rifles among other articles.”

Weeks later, Menendez “secretly edited and ghost-wrote” a letter “seeking to convince other U.S. Senators to release a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt.”

Menendez allegedly shared “sensitive, non-public embassy information” with Hana, whose New Jersey company had sole authorization from the Egyptian government to verify that halal meat exported for sale had been prepared according to Islamic law.

The halal monopoly

Hana had no background in halal certification. But by spring 2019, court documents show, he obtained “an exclusive monopoly on the certification of U.S. food exports to Egypt as compliant with halal standards.”

Prosecutors allege Menendez abused his post on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to steer the deal. Halal meat is a big international business and, previously, a number of U.S. companies had certification contracts verifying the food had been prepared according to Islamic law.

But in April of that year, an an Egyptian government official allegedly told Hana his company would become Egypt’s sole halal certifier in the U.S. market.

The next day, according to the indictment, Arslanian texted her husband.

“Seems like halal went through,” she allegedly wrote. “It might be a fantastic 2019 all the way around.”

A mortgage bailout and no-show job

In return for their assistance in foreign affairs, the indictment alleges, Hana gave Arslanian a bailout.

Facing foreclosure, Arslanian needed about $23,000 to keep her mortgage current, court papers show. Hana’s company, IS EG Halal, came to the rescue, the indictment alleges.

Hana also offered to put Arslanian on his company’s payroll “in a low-or-no-show job,” according to the indictment.

Read the indictment here:

NJ Advance Media staff writer Derek Hall contributed to this report.

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S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com.