(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The wife of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. cashed in $400,000 worth of gold bars just before getting hit by a federal probe, the New York Post reported.
Nadine Arslanian, 56, made the sale last spring, just months before Menendez’s office announced that the liberal lawmaker, who currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would face yet another federal investigation with respect to corruption.
In total, Arslanian sold approximately 13 pounds of pure gold, despite having foreclosed on a home before marrying Menendez in 2020.
According to the report, Menendez met his bride to be in 2018 at a Union City International House of Pancakes.
Arslanian noted that they had pancakes together, and she noticed that Menendez “was very intelligent and had a great sense of humor, and he was very, very hot.”
Now they find themselves squarely in the sights of the FBI, which launched a federal probe into their financial dealings soon after the sale of the gold bars.
Specifically, authorities are looking into several questionable luxury items that were given to the senator and his wife, including a high-end car and a Washington, D.C., apartment.
Menendez, 69, has found himself in hot water with federal authorities in the past, as well.
In 2015, he was indicted after prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Unit accused him of accepting bribes from Palm Beach ophthalmologist and political contributor Salomon Melgen.
Specifically, Menendez used his position of authority to secure visas for Melgen’s various foreign girlfriends, who came from exotic places like Ukraine, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
Menendez, however, got off the hook when the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of public corruption, causing all sorts of complications in the case.
