Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine have been indicted on bribery charges, according to the Department of Justice. 

The indictment comes after U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams opened a corruption investigation last October into Menendez, who has been in the Senate since 2006 and is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

“A press event will be held today at 11:00 a.m. to announce the unsealing of an indictment charging Robert Menendez, U.S. Senator from New Jersey, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, with bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen,” the DOJ said in a statement.

The criminal investigation into Menendez, which first made news last October, originally centered around how IS EG Halal, a New Jersey-based halal meat business, won “an exclusive worldwide contract with Egypt to certify halal exports — as numerous other firms’ contracts were suddenly canceled in 2019,” NBC News reported at the time.

Numerous sources told the publication that the U.S. Agriculture Department was suspicious over how the large contract was awarded to the company, which had “little experience.” Menendez’s wife is friends with the company’s owners, the report said, and the senator’s position as chairman on the Foreign Relations Committee puts him in charge of billions of dollars in aid to Egypt.

Other aspects of the investigation included questions about whether Menendez and his wife were bribed with gold bars worth up to $400,000, cash, jewelry, and a luxury apartment. 

Menendez has faced multiple scandals during his time in the Senate, and has previously been indicted over bribery accusations. 

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In 2015, Menendez was indicted on bribery charges for allegedly accepting “luxury vacations, golf outings, campaign donations and expensive flights” from Florida physician Salomon Melgen in exchange for political favors. A federal jury in Florida convicted Melgen in April of “67 charges for operating what prosecutors called a massive scheme that robbed Medicare out of as much as $105 million,” the Palm Beach Post reported. Menendez was never convicted after his time in court ended in a mistrial. 

Prosecutors began investigating Menendez when they were tipped off in 2012 that Menendez was allegedly having sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.