The Justice Department is investigating whether expensive gifts were given to New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and his wife, including a Mercedes-Benz, a luxury DC apartment, money and jewelry, sources familiar with the matter said.
According to the sources, investigators want to know if the gifts, which are said to be worth tens of thousands of dollars, came from the owner or partners of an Edgewater, NJ, company that won a controversial exclusive contract to certify Halal meat with the Egyptian government, despite US Department of Agriculture officials complaining that the company had no prior experience in this field.
The questions about the gifts were first reported by WNBC and nbcnewyork.com.
“I’m sure it will end in absolutely nothing,” Menendez said last week, denying any wrongdoing in connection with the ongoing federal corruption investigation.
Sources familiar with the matter say Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, along with FBI Criminal Investigation agents and the IRS are investigating whether the senator and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, improperly took gifts from the owner or associates. of IS EG Halal, and whether the senator took any action in return.
Menendez, a Democrat, serves as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and helps oversee billions of dollars in aid to Egypt.
«Prosecutors obviously would want to see if the senator or someone close to him was given money, apartments, cars in exchange for one of his official acts,» said Chuck Rosenberg, NBC News legal analyst.
In addition to the investigation into any possible quid-pro-quo schemes, sources familiar with the matter said IRS criminal investigators are looking into whether the alleged gifts were correctly accounted for on the senator and his wife’s tax returns. Neither item appears on Menendez’s Senate disclosure forms.
The Senate rules state in part that gifts to a member or someone close to the member are considered gifts if a senator «has reason to believe that the gift was given because of official position.»
A spokeswoman for Menendez declined to comment when asked if the senator or his wife received a Mercedes, free rent, money or jewelry from the IS EG Halal business or associates. She referred to NBC News earlier statements in which the senator acknowledged an ongoing «investigation» and said «should there be any official inquiries, the senator is available to provide any assistance requested of him or his office.» .
In 2019, IS EG Halal was awarded an exclusive contract with the Egyptian government to certify Halal meat exports around the world. The Egyptian government suddenly laid off seven longtime companies around the world and those companies lost millions in business with the Edgewater company, a company run by a Christian with little prior experience in Islamic certification of international meat imports and exports.
Peter Paradis, a former USDA deputy assistant inspector general, said the contract change «defies logic.»
Paradis played no role in the current criminal investigation into the senator and his relationship with IS EG Halal. But Paradis points to previous USDA reports on the controversy, including one that claimed IS EG Halal «has no pre-existing relationship with the US beef industry or Islamic organizations.»
“This corporation does not have a history of doing these types of certifications, and yet the country in question designates them as the only entity to perform that task.” Paradis said.
A spokeswoman for Wael Hana, owner of IS EG Halal, denied this.
“The allegations about cars, apartments, cash and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with IS EG Halal to Senator Menendez or his wife, let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment, are completely without foundation,” the spokeswoman said. .
Sources familiar with the matter said that as part of the ongoing investigation, the FBI is looking into whether any IS EG executives or associates paid any bribes to any Egyptian officials. Officials with the Egypt-based USDA Foreign Agricultural Service have turned over related documents to the Justice Department, the sources said.
“If representatives of this company were paying Egyptian officials for consideration, for favors, for a business advantage, that is a crime,” Rosenberg said. He explained that any such payment could violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
IS EG Halal has said the company won the contract on the merits and denied any wrongdoing.
A spokeswoman said the firm IS EG Halal won the contract “without any help from the senator or any other US public official. There is also no proof that the contract was awarded on the basis of bribery or corruption in Egypt, and nothing of the kind has ever been alleged.»
A spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, DC, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Sources close to IS EG Halal said that Hana, the owner, has been friends with the senator’s wife for a long time, and that friendship existed long before she met the senator. A source familiar with the business said Arslanian had received gifts from the owner, including jewelry, over the years.
Sources familiar with the matter said investigators want to know if Egyptian officials knew of the links between IS EG Halal and the senator’s wife and if there was any effort by any Egyptian officials to try to run a foreign influence operation related to Menendez.
“A senator can certainly help someone in his state,” Rosenberg said. “They can make connections. They can organize meetings. They can advocate for businesses within their jurisdictions. What they cannot do is accept money or gifts in exchange for an official act.”
A spokesperson for Sen. Menendez declined to comment on any of the allegations, citing the ongoing «investigation.»
In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions narrowing the definition of public corruption. In 2018, Menéndez had the criminal charges against him dropped after a separate corruption, the trial had ended in a split jury. The allegations in that case were that Menendez received gifts and free private jet rides from the now-convicted Medicare fraudster, Salomon Melgen.
US Attorney Damian Williams is overseeing this latest criminal investigation, according to sources and people who have received subpoenas. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, declined to comment. An FBI spokesperson and an IRS-CI spokeswoman also declined to comment.
This investigation into Menendez appears to have grown in scope in recent weeks, after a new round of grand jury subpoenas were served, including one to North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco. The new subpoenas do not appear to be related to any IS EG Halal-related matter, but rather separate questions related to the senator and state legislation related to a proposed development deal, people familiar with the matter said.