(CNN) – Businessman Wael Hanna, accused in the case of Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday before the federal court in Manhattan and confirmed that he was not guilty. The court released him on bail worth $5 million and handed over his travel documents.
The indictment against Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, stated that they accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for exploiting the senator’s position for the benefit of the Egyptian authorities.
Wael Hanna was arrested on Tuesday morning at John F. Kennedy Airport upon his return from Egypt, his lawyer, Larry Lustberg, told reporters after the court hearing.
Lustberg added that Hanna returned to the United States to face the charges, while his wife and children remained in Egypt, where they all live most of the year.
According to the indictment brought against Wael Hanna, along with Menendez and others, last week, he faces charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, as well as conspiracy to commit Internet fraud.
Hanna is subject to surveillance and a curfew that requires him to be at his home in New Jersey from 8 pm until 8 am. He is also prohibited from contacting the other defendants and witnesses in the case without the presence of lawyers. All shares in his company, Capital Management EG, will also be kept as a guarantee for his release.
His lawyer said he will try to run his business, but it remains to be seen whether this business will continue.
Prosecutors allege that Senator Menendez agreed and sought to pressure a senior USDA official in an attempt to protect the business monopoly granted to Hanna by Egypt.
According to the indictment, Nadine, the senator’s wife, facilitated meetings with Hanna and other Egyptian officials.
Menendez was highly influential at the time as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Wael Hanna’s lawyer said that the Egyptian businessman was a friend of Nadine for many years before she started dating the senator in 2018. He also added that he would not consider Menendez a friend of Hanna, and said that he did not know whether Wael Hanna had done that or not, that is, made contacts. With Egyptian intelligence.
Lustberg told reporters after his arraignment that Hanna had pleaded not guilty “because he has pleaded not guilty.”
Hanna allegedly facilitated an agreement to provide bribes to the senator and his wife, Nadine, in exchange for the senator’s influence on matters that benefited him, the Egyptian government, and others.
The US Department of Agriculture contacted Egypt in 2019 to object to granting Hanna monopoly rights related to the supply of halal meat to the United States.
Hanna is scheduled to return to Manhattan court on October 2.
2023-09-26 21:15:43
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