Bob Menendez’s wife landed with an Egypt-linked COVID-19 lab and the millions of dollars of testing business it did in their home state of New Jersey were “a direct outgrowth” of the vast international bribery scheme engulfing the pair.
During the 2020–2021 period, the senator’s spouse and co-defendant worked for Fusion Diagnostics Laboratory, which obtained contracts to manage testing facilities throughout the northern Garden State region that has long been Menendez’s political base.
This allowed Fusion Diagnostics Laboratory to access more than $10 million in federal funding.
Additional information about the transaction was revealed in the latest court documents filed by the Menendezes’ attorneys, who contend that they served as bribe takers for the governments of Qatar and Egypt and that Nadine Menendez received “over $100,000” in compensation.
The records also state that Fusion and the senator’s spouse profited from the enormous influence the once-powerful Menendezes had in the towns and cities that the infamous Democratic Party apparatus in New Jersey controlled.
“The relationship between the Menendezes and the laboratory company was a direct outgrowth of the charged bribe scheme,” According to the Justice Department. “The Laboratory Company CEO paid Nadine Menendez in exchange for Menendez’s efforts to pressure and advise various New Jersey city officials to use the Laboratory Company to perform COVID-19 testing services in their municipalities, including providing government space and using government resources to publicize the Laboratory Company’s testing services.”
The feds also explained to the public how Nadine Menendez, a French major with no prior medical experience, came to be employed in the first place: she was introduced to Fusion’s co-owner and CEO, Moataz Abdalla, by an employee of Wael Hana, one of the three businessmen charged with bribing the senator and his fiancée.
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Hana and Abdalla are both natives of Egypt, and both of their businesses have connections to the nation.
The Menendezes are attempting to suppress information about the lab payment arrangement on the basis that Abdalla told federal investigators that Menendez recruited the senator’s wife because of her powerful spouse at the time and that Menendez helped him with commercial dealings with New Jersey municipalities.
