Nadine Menendez guilty on all counts

Jury finds that former senator's wife aided bribery scheme

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

..... The wife of former Senator Bob Menendez, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, has been convicted of helping her husband collect bribes.
..... Arslanian Menendez was charged in a sprawling indictment brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York on 15 counts including bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice in a multi-level scheme that traded in envelopes of cash, gold bars and a new Mercedes for official acts that benefited Qatar and Egypt.
..... Arslanian Menendez was found guilty on all 15 counts on the afternoon of April 21 [2025] in federal court in lower Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein set sentencing for June 15. [2025]
..... The federal indictment against Arslaniian Menendez and her husband was first unsealed in September 2023 and was updated with superseding indictments three times - in October of that year [2023] and in January and March 2024. It alleged that Menendez, his wife, and three New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, were part of bribery scheme. Menendez and his wife allegedly received, among other things, cash, god bars and a luxury car in exchange for the sue of his political influence.
..... After a nine-week trail last summer, [2024] Menendez, Daibes and Hana were found guilty on a conciliation of 18 counts, including bribery.
..... During the senator's trial, his attorney put the blame on his wife, calling her "dazzling," and said they had separate lives even while living together. Arslanian hid financial challenges from her husband before they met and during their time together, Menendez's lawyer, Avi Weitzman, said in his opening remarks,. Weltzman also pointed out that the now-infamous gold bars were found in arslanian's locked closet, not Menedez's deliberated for several hours April 18 and again on April 21 [2025] before reaching a verdict at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Court House.
..... Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Hana more than eight years and Daibes seven years. Daibes was fiend $1.75 million; Hana was fiend $1.3 million. all three are appealing their cases.
..... Arslanian's trial lasted about four weeks, with frequent adjournments for motions and possibly for medical reasons. Mitchell Epner, an attorney with Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner who has 30 years of experience with government enforcement, compliance and white-collar litigation, said the senator's trial had different issues that needed to be handled "delicately" with the speech an debate clause.
..... With Arslanian Menendez's trial, the issues were broader.
..... "The government needed to prove that she was part of funneling bribes to her husband and if she knew what she was doing," Epner said. "the granular details were not as important in the way they were with him."
..... Menendez, Daibes and Hana have all filed motions for new trials and are seeking bail as their appeals play out. After making his initial motion, Daibes was assigned to the prison camp at FCI Fairton, in South Jersey, Hana was assigned to FCI Schuyliill in Minersville, Pennsylvania.
..... Daibes and Hana will report to federal prison on May 19, [2025] after Stein granted each a 45-day extension to allow them to prepare and then testify at the Arslanian Menendez trial.
..... Daibes and Hana on a witness list was "clearly a strategy" Epner said.
..... Putting them on a witness list gave lawyers the option to call them. "At the end of the day, the downside of calling them was not worth whatever they were going to get with any positive testimony," he said.
..... The cross-examination of Hana and Daibes would have had them say they were convicted of bribery and note that they are appealing the verdicts. "So they would have every reason in the world to say nothing bad happened here."
..... During closing statements, the prosecution rehashed the hundreds of thousands of dollars stuffed in jackets and shoes and gold bars in Nadine and bob Menedez's Englewood Cliffs home.
.... "At this trial you learned where all these valuables came from. you learned that they were bribes that the defendant demanded and collected from Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes in exchange for promises what the senator, here partner in crime, would take official action," United States Attorney for the Southern district of New York Paul Monteleoni said.
..... Monteleoni referred to Nadine and bob as :partners in crime" who put his "Power up for sale" while Nadine demanded and collected payment.
..... "They promised he would take action in exchange for those bribes," Monteleoni said.
..... Those promises included approval of military aid to Egypt, providing Egypt with sensitive information about Americans stationed abroad, and helping Egypt, in other ways. They also included a promise of Menendez putting pressure on a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to stop opposing a monopoly that Egypt was giving to Hana's halal certification company. The senator promised he would pressure the New Jersey attorney general to disrupt a criminal investigation and prosecution of associates of Hana and Uribe, and to try to interfere with Daibes' Federal criminal prosecution, Monteleoni outlined in his closing remarks.
..... Menendez wasn't in court with his wife April 18 [2025] when the jury began deliberating.

What were the charges?

..... The four were charged with 18 counts in the original indictment.
..... Menendez faced the most, with 16, followed by his wife, with a total of 15 counts.
* count One: conspiracy to commit bribery.
* Count Two: Conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
* Count Three: Conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
* Count Four: Conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
* Count Five: Bribery: Actions to benefit Hana and Egypt.
* Count Seven: Honest services wire fraud: Actions to benefit Hana and Egypt.
* Count Eight: Extortion under color of official right: Actions to benefit Hana and Egypt.
* count Nine: Honest services wir4e Fraud: Actions to benefit Uribe and Uribe's associates.
* Count 10: Extortion under color of official right: Actions to benefit Uribe and Uribe's associates
* Count 11: Bribery: Actions to benefit Daibes and Qatar.
* Count 13: Honest service wire fraud: Actions to benefit Dabies and Qatar.
* Count 14: Extortion under color of official right: Actions to benefit Daibes and Qatar.
* Count 15: Conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent.
* Count 17: Conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
* Count 18: Obstruction of justice.

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