Gold bars, wads of cash and ties with Egypt may spell the end of the political career of Sen. Bob Menendez, who has been the most staunch foe of improving Turkish-U.S. relations at the U.S. Senate. For Türkiye, the federal probe targeting Menendez may change relations with the United States for good.
Menendez and his wife have been indicted on bribery charges following a federal investigation into their relationships with a trio of New Jersey businesspeople. However, the New Jersey Democrat declared he would not resign on Monday.
"One of our biggest problems regarding the F-16s was U.S. Senator Bob Menendez’s activities against our country. Therefore, our Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will now follow the process closely," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters as he was returning from a visit to Azerbaijan on Monday, reminding that Fidan and his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken met recently in the States.
He said that this situation could be turned into an opportunity. "Not only on the F-16s but Menendez and those with similar stances conduct obstructive activities against us. Menendez getting out of the equation is an advantage, but the F-16 issue is not only linked to him." "This issue has shown us how important it is to be a self-sufficient country in the defense industry. We had the same situation regarding UAVs previously. Then we had the predator problem. We could not get it from our ally despite our need. What did we do? We produced our own UAVs. Now we need F-16s, but at the same time, we are producing our new generation warplane Kaan," he emphasized.
Menendez has long opposed the potential sale of the F-16s to Türkiye, citing issues including Ankara not ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership, accusations about human rights and Turkish-Greek tensions. NATO member Türkiye requested in October 2021 to buy $20 billion of Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes. President Joe Biden’s administration supports the sale. Ankara had held out on the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership for months, due to Stockholm doing too little against terrorists, mainly the PKK. But Erdoğan said on July 10 that he would forward the ratification to Parliament when it reopens in the autumn and leave the decision upto Parliament. "They (U.S.) connect the Sweden issue to the F-16s. We say, ‘If you have Congress, we have our Parliament.’ We cannot disregard our Parliament. The Turkish Grand National Assembly will decide on Sweden’s NATO membership from now on. When the issue comes to the agenda of Parliament, we will see together what the decision will be," Erdoğan said.
Federal investigators are currently scrutinizing Menendez amid allegations that he received gold bars valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from a convicted felon for assistance, as revealed in a recently published report. A federal grand jury convened to attempt to determine if corruption charges should be brought against the longtime lawmaker and senior New Jersey senator. Witnesses have begun to testify. At issue are Menendez’s ties to New Jersey real estate tycoon and ex-bank chairperson Fred Daibes. FBI and national tax investigators are probing if Daibes gave Menendez’s wife, Nadine Arslanian, gold bars worth up to $400,000.
The exchange took place at the same time that Daibes was under federal investigation for bank fraud, charges that could have led him to spend a decade behind bars, NBC reported. A legal expert told the news outlet that it could be criminal if Menendez agreed to contact Justice Department officials about the case for the gifts. "For purposes of the Federal Extortion Act, it makes no difference if the senator took an official act so long as he accepted the money and there was knowledge the money was in exchange for that official influence, even if he never carried out what he had promised he would do," said NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Menendez disclosed that his family received the gold bars in 2020 after the investigation into Daibes began.
New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed last year to allow Daibes to plead guilty to one criminal charge and serve probation. He had faced dozens of bank fraud charges related to a $1.8 million loan from Mariner’s Bank, where he was chairperson. Daibes’ sentencing has been delayed three times in the past year by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton. His attorneys have denied he is cooperating with federal prosecutors against Menendez, according to NBC. But the gold bars exchange is just one part of the probe, said NBC.
Authorities also examine whether Menendez or his wife accepted gifts from IS EG Halal. The startup won a lucrative contract with the Egyptian government to conduct all halal inspections for the U.S. despite not having any experience in the field. Investigators seek to determine whether Menendez used his seat as Senate Foreign Relations chairperson to bolster the New Jersey company’s bid in exchange for gifts. Menendez and IS EG Halal have denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say shortly after they began dating in 2018, Nadine Menendez, then known as Nadine Arslanian, introduced him to her friend Wael Hana, who is originally from Egypt and had close ties with Egyptian officials. Hana was a business associate of Daibes and Jose Uribe, who worked in the New Jersey insurance and trucking industries.
Between 2018 and 2022, the Menendez couple agreed to and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes from Hana, Daibes and Uribe. These bribes included gold, cash, a luxury convertible, payments toward Nadine Menendez’s home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job for Nadine Menendez, home furnishings and other things of value.