6 events in Passaic County with a date

Nadine Menendez gets over 4 years

Wife of former U.S. senator sentenced in bribery scheme

By: Kristie Cattafi
and Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Nadine Arslanian Menendez, wife of former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced September 11 [2025] to more than four years - 53 months - in federal prison for her part in a bribery and corruption scandal, according to reports.
..... Arslanian Menendez was convicted on charges in a sprawling indictment brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York that included bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice in a multilevel scheme that treaded in envelopes of cash, gold bars and a new Mercedes for official acts that benefited Qatar and Egypt. Arslamian Menendez received her sentence in federal court in lower Manhattan.
..... Soon after the hearing began, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said the penalty he planned to level against Arslanian Mennedez was "substantially below" guidelines, reports said.
..... Arslanian Menendez's sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, reports said.
..... Memendez, his wife and three New Jersey businessmen - Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe - were charged with orchestrating a bribery scheme. Menendez and his wife allegedly received gifts in exchange for the use of his political influence. the federal indictment in September 2023 and was updated with superseding indictments three times - in October of that year [2023] and again in January and March 2024.
..... Lawyers for Arslanina Menendez had said her prison sentence for her bribery and corruption convictions should be no longer than one year plus a day, instead of the suggested eight years.
..... Arskanian Menendez didn't state trial with the trio. Her trial was delayed because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. initially listed by the court only as a "serious medical condition," the diagnosis was revealed by her husband during his trial.
..... During her sentencing, Arslanina Menendez blamed her husband for the position she is in now. She cried during most of her statement to the judge.
..... "I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet," she said, according to reports. "The blindfold is off. I now the man I through he was."
..... Despite her description of her husband in the courthouse, when asked by a reporter outside, she said, "i do not plan on divorcing him."

What has Bob Menendez said?

..... During the senator's trial, his attorney blamed his wife for helping to lead the scheme, calling her :dazzling: and said they had separate lives even while living together.
..... Arslanian Menendez hid financial challenges from her husband before they met and during their time together, Menendez's lawyer Avi Weitzman, said in his opening remarks during the former senator;s 2024 federal trial. Weitzman also pointed out that the now-infamous gold bars were found in Arslanian's locked closet, not Menendez's.
..... Menendez tired to distance himself form that legal strategy in a letter written to a federal judge after he reported to federal prison to begin serving his 11-year sentence earlier this summer. [2025]
..... "Regret that I didn't fully preview what my Defense Attorney said about Nadine during my trial and in his summation," he wrote. "To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong."
..... Menendez detailed :traumatic events" that affected his wife from a young age, including escaping from Lebanno during its civil war, her father's being kidnapped for ransom, and her nightmares from watching children who were dying.
..... The former senator continued in his letter that his wife suffered from an abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend that resulted in a "severe beating" that left her hospitalized with a brain injury and caused her to lose her senses of smell and taste. Menendez said he witnessed the stalking when he began to date her.
..... Mendez also said his wife has been cancer-free for a year but still requires reconstruction procedures.
....."taken as a whole, my wife has alr4ady suffered more than most people in a lifetime. She has lost everything she cared about," Menendez said, noting that because he's in prison, he can no longer care for her.

Is she still battling cancer?

..... Arslanian Menendez's attorney, Sarah Krissioff, wrote a letter to Stein on September 8 [2025] to update him on her client's medical situation.
..... Stein said he was granting her leniency because of her trial, past abuse, health condition, age and difficult childhood in Lebanon.
..... "People have to understand there are consequences," Stein said, noting that a prison term was important for general deterrence, report said.
..... Arslanian Menendez will surrender to federal authorities on July 10, 2026. after she has completed medicinal procedures.
..... She had a virtual appointment on August 15 [2025] for her plastic and reconstructive surgeon to outline the next steps in her care, which includes "extensive surgeries," Krisoff wrote in her letter to Stein, adding that Arslanian Menendez's next in-person, medical appointment is November 6. [2025]
..... A supplemental letter from Arslanian Menendez's plastic and reconstitution surgeon said she had suffered complications from her initial breast cancer surgery that required additional surgery.
..... "However, despite multiple surgeries, patient has unrelenting pain severely disrupting her life," wrote the doctor, whose name was redacted in papers. "this pain is so severe that it prevents her from sleeping."
..... The letter said Arslanina Medindez continued to suffer from other "significant disabling symptoms" related to her cancer surgery.
..... The doctor said he recommended that she undergo multiple "medically necessary procedures," including sequential surgeries to fix "multiple complex issues."
..... One surgery is estimated to last 12 hours and "requires" hospitalization and several months of recovery, including physical therapy.
..... "The patient will require at least on revision procedure to crate an acceptable outcome," the doctor wrote. "Each of these surgeries come with multiple potential complications including bleeding, tissue death, open wounds and blood clots as well as potential risk of death."

Why did she need a new car?

..... Arslanian Menendez struck and killed a man while driving her Mercedes-Benz on Main Street in Bogota in December 2018.
..... Details about the crash, which unfolded on the evening of December 12, 2018, are outlined in a Bogota Police Department report obtained and first reported by NorthJersey.com ,
..... Survives of the man who died, Richard Koop, received a settlement "for the maximum amount." Koop's ex-wife said her family received $60,000 after attorney's fees were taken out.
..... Arslanian Memendez - who began dating Menendez in February 2018 and married the senator in October 2020 - was not charged in the incident.
..... A month after the crash, said an indictment brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Arslanian Menendez was testing Wael Hana, the Egyptian American businessman also indicted in the bribery scheme, about her lack of a car. Hana later provided her with a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible.
...... Menendez said in his character letter that his wife's past financial troubles cited during her trial about her mortgage and payments for her car - which the state argued were bribe payments -were a result of "being concerned about a potential lawsuit as a result of an automobile accident, not out of financial duress,"
..... "The decision she made to insulate herself from that liability were mistakes," Menendez said.

When will Uribe be sentenced?

..... After several delays, the last player and star witness in both trials will be sentenced on October 9. [2025]
..... Uribe initially entered a not guilty plea to seven charges but later changed it to guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. he spent several days last summer [2024] testifying against Menendez and admitted to bribing him.
..... According to a plea agreement, Uribe could face up to 95 years in prison, though he could win leniency because of his cooperation with federal prosecutors and his testimony against the other defendants.

HOME