Reported by Nicole Hong, Tracey Tully and William K. Rashbaum

Just five years ago, Wael Hana was reeling from a string of bad business deals in New Jersey, having tried to launch a truck stop, an Italian restaurant, a limousine service and other companies without ever hitting it big.

Then, his friend started dating Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, one of the most powerful Democrats in the United States Senate. Soon, Mr. Hana introduced Mr. Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to a growing circle of Egyptian officials, and Mr. Hana’s fortunes took a remarkable turn: He won sole control over certifying all halal food being imported into Egypt, earning enough money to bribe Mr. Menendez with gold bars and wads of cash, prosecutors said.

Mr. Hana, Mr. Menendez and others are now facing charges in what prosecutors have described as a wide-ranging corruption scheme — one that threatens to put an end to the senator’s five decades in politics. But the allegations, if true, also raise a pressing question about Mr. Hana: Was he an agent of the Egyptian government all along, or just a lucky opportunist who stumbled into a position of international influence?

The F.B.I. is investigating this very question. But a New York Times examination of hundreds of pages of court filings, business records and interviews with nearly a dozen people who knew or dealt with Mr. Hana offered insights into the path he traveled during his bumpy start — and meteoric rise.

Within the span of a few years, he would transform from a debt-laden businessman who could not afford even a $2,000 emergency room bill to an international power broker who boasted about his Rolex watch collection to a diplomat in Cairo.

In addition to the corruption investigation into Mr. Menendez, the F.B.I. has been conducting a parallel counterintelligence inquiry.

Read full report: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/nyregion/menendez-egypt-bribe-hana.html