US Sen. Menendez hit with new federal accusations in graft case

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US Sen. Bob Menendez is facing new criminal accusations in an ongoing graft investigation that has ensnared his wife and a trio of prominent New Jersey businessmen, according to a superseding indictment returned Tuesday.

Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty to all prior charges, is now being accused of using his position to illegally benefit the Qatari government. The New Jersey senator is being accused of doing so in order to help businessman Fred Daibes attain a multi-million dollar investment from an investment firm with ties to Doha.

Daibes sought the funding in 2021 in order to finance a real estate development project that he was working on, and the Democratic lawmaker allegedly accepted bribes from the businessman in exchange for making positive statements about Qatar, prosecutors said.

As the investment company mulled its decision, Menendez provided Daibes with the statements "so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official associated with the Qatari Investment company," the revised indictment says.

It does not appear that prosecutors added any new charges to the updated criminal indictment.

Menendez was allegedly paid by Daibes in cash, gold bars and other items of value. Prosecutors allege that Menendez exchanged messages with Daibes over an encrypted platform in which the businessman sent photos of two luxury watches valued between $9,990 and $23,990.

"How about one of these?" Daibes allegedly asked. The message was sent just days after Menendez and Daibes attended a private event in Manhattan hosted by the Qatari government, according to the indictment.

The following month, Daibes' driver picked up Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, from the airport after the couple visited Qatar and Egypt, and Menendez the following day made a Google search asking, "How much is a kilo of gold worth?" the court document said.

The Qatari investment firm agreed to invest tens of millions of dollars into Daibes' development in 2023, and Menendez subsequently continued to receive gifts from the company, including tickets to the 2023 Formula One Grand Prix in Miami.

Menendez was previously charged following a years-long corruption investigation with illicitly using his office to benefit the Egyptian government.

Menendez is accused of accepting bribes to use the power of his office to benefit three businessmen and the Egyptian government, including attempts to influence the outcomes of state and federal investigations and passing restricted government information to Cairo. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.

Arslanian, his wife, and the businessmen -- Daibes, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe -- have also pleaded not guilty.

Hana is the owner of IS EG Halal Certified, Inc., a startup company that won a lucrative contract with the Egyptian government to conduct all halal inspections for US exports to Egypt despite not having any experience.

He allegedly arranged meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials "for corrupt purposes," including putting Menendez's wife on Hana's company's payroll "for a low-or-no-show job" in exchange for the senator's promise to facilitate arms sales and financing to Cairo, according to the indictment.

Investigators found more than $486,000 in cash when they searched Menendez's home in 2022, "much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe," in addition to gold bars, according to the indictment that was unsealed last month.

Two of the one-kilogram bars and nine one-ounce gold bars that were recovered bore serial numbers indicating that they were once owned by Daibes, according to prosecutors.

The latest raft of charges mark the second time Menendez has faced a federal criminal indictment on corruption charges.