Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice. The reason? He and his wife are accused of accepting numerous gifts in exchange for political favors. The Democrat, currently serving as chairman of the Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, vehemently denies the allegations.
As reported by NBC News, the issue is as such: the authorities allege that both he and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, accepted gifts from the company IS EG Halal in exchange for the latter providing them with a bidding process with the Egyptian government, specifically to certify Halal meat. In other words, a traditional quid pro quo.
The doubts began after the company won the bid. Department of Agriculture officials complained that he has no prior experience in the field and was awarded the contract purely on his position.
It all started in 2019, when IS EG Halal won an exclusive contract with the Egyptian government to certify Halal meat exports worldwide. The government dismissed seven companies with experience in the industry, handing over millions of dollars to a company run by a Christian with minimal expertise in Islamic certification of international meat imports and exports.
For Peter Paradis, former USDA deputy assistant inspector general, this contract change "defies logic." Before the contract change, USDA reports suggested that IS EG Halal "has no preexisting relationship with the U.S. beef industry or Islamic organizations."
"This corporation has no track record of doing these types of certifications — and yet the country in question earmarks them as the sole entity to perform that task?" posited Paradis.
Among the alleged gifts were a Mercedes-Benz car, a luxury apartment in the expensive D.C. area, cash and jewelry. An NBC News legal analyst, Chuck Rosenberg, commented, "Prosecutors would obviously want to look if money, apartments, cars were given to the senator or someone close to him in return for one of his official acts."
Investigators want to know whether Egyptian officials knew about the alleged gifts between IS EG Halal and the Democrat and whether Menendez had any involvement in the contract being signed.
The company said it obtained the contract "without any assistance from the senator or any other U.S. public official. Nor is there any evidence whatsoever that the contract was awarded based upon bribery or corruption in Egypt — and nothing like that has ever even been alleged."
