According to an indictment, which became public in September 2023, the U.S. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez (formerly Arslanian), were implicated in a corruption case involving three businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes. Senator Menendez has held key positions in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including being the “ranking member” and later the Chairman since 2021. Allegedly, the Menendezs accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez’s leveraging his political power and influence to benefit the three businessmen and Egypt. These bribes included cash, gold, mortgage payments, and remuneration for a low-or-no-show job, and a luxury car. Senator Menendez’s purported misuse of his influence and official duties is central to the allegations. As a matter of voluntary practice the State Department, which has to authorise foreign military sales and financing, would typically not proceed with such transfers unless the chairman or ranking member of the foreign relations committee had not signed off on them. This gave Menendez substantial influence over military sales to Egypt, especially as Egypt often faces resistance to military financing and sales due to the government’s poor human rights record and lack of democratic governance.

Shortly after Nadine and Robert began dating in 2018, Wael Hana and Nadine Arslanian (now Menendez) arranged a series of meetings and dinners with the senator, paid for by Hana and his associates. During these meetings, Egyptian officials raised requests related to military sales and financing. In exchange for putting Nadine Arslanian (Menendez) on the payroll of his company for a low-or-no-show job, Senator Menendez agreed to use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt.

Moreover, Senator Menendez is alleged to have shared non-public information concerning US military aid to Egypt and details about US embassy staff in the country to Egyptian officials. It is also claimed that Menendez secretly edited and ghost-wrote a lobbying letter to other US senators intended to release a hold on USD 300 million in aid to Egypt, at the request of Egyptian officials referred to as the “General”. Following one of these meetings, Hana shared information from Menendez with Egyptian officials, indicating that he would sign off on the sale of 46,000 120 MM target practice rounds and 10,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth USD 99 million the same day. On another occasion, Nadine Menendez informed Hana that her husband had to “sign off” on two arms sales worth a total of approx. USD 2.5 billion, likely referring to the C-130J and air defence systems sales.

In a separate instance, the couple provided the Egyptians with publicly available information on questions that would be posed to a senior Egyptian official by US senators on human rights matters to help them prepare their rebuttal.

Hana allegedly made repeated commitments to pay Ms. Arslanian (Menendez) through a low-or-no-show job with his company IS EG Halal Certified, Inc. However, the company had little to no revenue and Hana initially did not deliver on his promises. Then, a significant turning point occurred in early 2019 the Egyptian government granted the company an exclusive monopoly to certify products imported from the United States to Egypt.

When the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) objected to this after the process raised costs for US companies, Menendez allegedly tried to convince a high-level US Department of Agriculture (USDA) official that the objection should be withdrawn. To their credit, the official did not accede to the demand. Between late August and early November of 2019, IS EG Halal issued three checks of USD 10,000 each to Nadine Arslanian’s (Menendez) consultancy firm. Additionally, in July 2019, they paid USD 23,000 to bring her mortgage up to date. The indictment alleges that Wael Hana and Fred Daibes provided multiple things of value to Robert and Nadine Menendez in exchange for their commitments.

The connection between Senator Menendez and these businessmen extended beyond matters of military sales. In 2019, Senator Menendez allegedly tried to interfere in the prosecution of an associate of Jose Uribe’s in New Jersey in exchange for a Mercedes convertible. His then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian (Menendez) was in need of a car after an accident in which she struck and killed a pedestrian, Richard Koop, 49, while driving her previous Mercedes-Benz in Bogota, New Jersey. Hana is alleged to have been involved in these discussions, while also helping procure the Mercedes. Additionally, Mendendez is said to have interfered in the prosecution of Fred Daibes. Notably, Menendez specifically suggested a candidate to the US President for the office of US Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez thought could influence Daibes’ case in his favour. This plan ultimately failed as the candidate suggested by Menendez recused himself from the Daibes case.

The specific details of the last set of allegations are not included in the timeline below but can be found in the indictment.