NEWARK — The litany of travel arranged by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's good friend, Salomon Melgen, reads like the operation of a small airline.

The meals and golf outings described by federal prosecutors in a 68-page indictment look like an expense account run amok.

And the favors that the New Jersey Democrat gave in return to his wealthy benefactor who contributed more than $1 million to various political campaigns connected to the senator, concluded prosecutors, demonstrated the senator was willing to use the weight of his office to help a friend.

The indictment made public by the U.S. Justice Department was stark in its detail of Melgen's largesse, which Menendez was allegedly all too willing to accept. It gives a behind-the-scenes narrative of just how quickly the state's senior senator would allegedly pick up a phone on Melgen's behalf — and in one case, hang up — when he was not happy with an answer from a government bureaucrat.



According to the indictment, Menendez traveled extensively on Melgen's tab, including:

• Domestic and international flights on private jets, as well as first-class domestic airfare arranged by Melgen.

• Use of Melgen's Caribbean villa at an exclusive Dominican resort.

• A three-night stay at a luxury hotel in Paris, paid for by Melgen's American Express Membership Rewards points.

• Expensive meals, golf outings, and tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to a legal defense fund.

FLIGHTS TO THE CARIBBEAN

The indictment noted that Melgen owned two private jets — a 10-seat Hawker Siddeley, and a 12-seat CL-600 Challenger — which were both stocked with refreshments and flown by the doctor's own flight staff. Menendez allegedly accepted numerous free rides, often flying out of Teterboro, and on more than one occasion, brought a guest with him. One time, a guest flew alone to meet Menendez in the Dominican Republic.

One of Melgen's two private jets. (Brian Thompson | via Flickr with permission)

While Menendez has admitted flying as a guest of Melgen on at least three occasions, and

paying back the cost of those flights

years later after questioned about them, there were at least seven round trips made between 2006 and 2010, according to the indictment. One such trip in October 2010 saw Melgen pick up the cost of an $890.70 first class ticket for a flight for Menendez from Newark to West Palm Beach. Two days later, he paid $8,036.82 to charter a private jet to fly Menendez from Palm Beach to Washington.

Prosecutors said the senator often stayed at Melgen's villa in Casa de Campo, a luxury golf resort located in La Romana on the Caribbean coast of the Dominican Republic. Melgen's villa had its own pool and was serviced by a private staff.

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Melgen also arranged a three-night stay for the senator at the five star Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome hotel in Paris in April 2010, where Menendez stayed with an unnamed woman with whom he had a personal relationship, according to the indictment. After first looking into whether the hotel had a government rate, the senator allegedly sent Melgen an email to book a suite or deluxe king.

Both rooms, according to Menendez's email, featured "king bed, work area with internet, limestone bath with soaking tub and enclosed rain shower [and] views of courtyard or the streets."

The value of the three-night stay was said to be $4,934.10

Prosecutors said Menendez did not report any of the gifts or travel on his annual Financial Disclosure Reports.

HELPING A FRIEND

At the same time, prosecutors said Menendez was just as good to Melgen — who appeared to have unprecedented access to the senator and his office. They said Menendez used his Senate staff to accommodate the doctor's requests for official action and advocating on his behalf to federal officials, including:

• Appealing to the State Department to put pressure on the Dominican Republic to enforce a multi-million dollar contract for a Melgen-associated company providing cargo screening at Dominican ports.

• Pressing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from donating shipping container monitoring and surveillance equipment to the Dominican Republic, which would threaten Melgen's contract.

• Interceding on Melgen's behalf in connection with an $8.9 million billing dispute with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In one call on the Medicare billing, Menendez spoke to an official at the Department of Health and Human Services, asserting that the guidelines for use of a medication at the heart of the billing dispute were vague and that "a doctor in Florida was being treated unfairly," the indictment said. When the official responded that they should allow the case to take its course and that the doctor had appellate rights, Menendez allegedly said not to tell him about Melgen's appellate rights and "abruptly ended the call."

INTERNATIONAL MODELS

Melgen's efforts to obtain U.S. visas for his girlfriends—all of them models, from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and the Ukraine—marshaled the senator's office to get on the phone with high-level officials in the Department of State, according to the indictment. In an email, one described a woman from Brasilia as coming to the U.S. on a student visa with support from Melgen.

"Sen. Menendez would like to advocate unconditionally for Dr. Melgen and encourage careful consideration of [the woman's] visa application," wrote the staffer to the Deputy Assistant Secrtary of Visa Services at the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The next day the visa was approved. Prosecutors said she enrolled at the University of Miami and her tuition was partly funded through Melgen's foundation, a non-profit organization with the self-described purpose of "helping with the educational needs of disadvantaged persons and assisting with the economic educational needs of children in developing countries."

In addition, Melgen contributed more than $1 million to various campaign committees, political entities and a legal defense fund that prosecutors said went to the benefit of Menendez. And the senator's staff asked more than once, according to the indictment, with one email carrying the subject "humbly asking."

A staffer suggested asking Melgen, who with his wife had already contributed $10,000 each to the Menendez legal defense trust fund, to consider having two other members of his family contribute another $10,000 each, according to the indictment.

"This request is more than considerable," the staffer wrote, the indictment noted. "I truly hope Dr. Melgen will understand that we do not take it lightly nor the sacrifice it represents."

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.