Senator Bob Menendez and his wife reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars despite facing an ineligibility just three years earlier and failing to initially disclose it in their ethics files.
Businesswoman Nadine Arslanian, 56, cashed in up to $400,000 in gold last spring, in a sale that took place just months before a federal investigation into the New Jersey Democrat was announced to the public.
The sale would have taken place between April 7 and June 16, 2022, the newspaper said New York Post.
Menendez, 69, did not initially list the gold on his 2020 financial disclosure, but filed an amendment in March 2022 that showed Arslanian had up to $250,000 in gold bars.
Then, in June, Menendez filed an additional modified report, adding a sale by his wife for between $200,000 and $400,000 of the precious metal.
Senator Bob Menendez and his wife reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars despite facing ineligibility just three years earlier and failing to initially disclose it in their ethics files
Businesswoman Nadine Arslanian, 56, cashed in up to $400,000 in gold last spring in a sale that took place just months before a federal investigation into the New Jersey Democrat was announced to the public.
Menendez, 69, did not initially list the gold on his 2020 financial disclosure, but filed an amendment in March 2022 that showed Arslanian had up to $250,000 in gold bars.
Arslanian reportedly had financial problems when the bars were sold and even faced foreclosure before marrying Menendez in 2020.
It’s unclear how she came into possession of the bars, equivalent to up to 13 pounds of pure gold.
It is not the first time the couple has faced bribery allegations.
In November 2022, Arslanian was under investigation by federal prosecutors as to whether she had accepted gifts in return for political favors from her husband.
Menendez married Arslanian in 2020 after the couple met in 2016 at an IHOP in New Jersey.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York subsequently subpoenaed business associates of Arslanian, insiders told the Wall Street Journal at the time.
Investigators in the study, which dates back to before the couple were even married, issued search warrants at the homes and businesses of the founder of IS EG Halal, a business in the couple’s hometown of Edgewater that is the only business in town . are allowed to certify halal meat shipped to Egypt.
Wael Hana, the founder of IS EG Halal, is reportedly an associate of Arslanian.
According to court documents filed by Hana’s attorney, prosecutors were investigating possible covert foreign lobbying activities in the US and other possible violations of federal law.
Then, in June, Menendez filed an additional amended report, adding a sale by his wife for between $200,000 and $400,000 of the precious metal.
The attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, demanded the return of government seized property.
After a trial in 2017, the judge declared the case null and void because the jury could not agree on a verdict. The judge then acquitted Menendez of a number of charges in 2018, and the Justice Department said it would not try him again.
Menendez’s lawyers argued that Melgen’s gifts were a sign of their long-standing friendship, not a bribe. Menendez paid for some of the trips he made to Melgen’s resort in the Dominican Republic.
Melgen was convicted in Florida of health care fraud, but former President Donald Trump commuted his sentence during his final days as president. A White House statement at the time credited Menendez with his support for clemency.