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Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife did the ‘dirty work’ in corruption scheme, prosecutors say at trial
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 24, 2025
Modified Mar 24, 2025
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 24, 2025
Modified Mar 24, 2025
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Nadine Menendez did the “dirty work” to get gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash and a new Mercedes-Benz convertible for herself and her husband, now-convicted former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, federal prosecutors said during opening statements in her criminal trial Monday.
“They were partners in crime, partners in corruption and partners in greed,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz.
A federal grand jury indicted the couple and three New Jersey businessmen on corruption charges in September 2023. Prosecutors said the businessmen bribed the Menendezes in exchange for the senator’s political influence. Nadine Menendez has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including bribery, fraud and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
One businessman pleaded guilty, while the two others and Bob Menendez were convicted on all counts last summer. A federal judge sentenced Menendez to 11 years in prison. He is free while appealing the decision.
Nadine Menendez — formerly Nadine Arslanian — is being tried separately because she has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Bob Menendez was not in the courtroom.
Opening statements started nearly two hours late, and Nadine Menendez sat quietly, occasionally jotting down notes as she waited. Once the proceedings started, she looked toward the attorneys and jurors, wearing a pink face mask adorned with breast cancer awareness ribbons and a dark gray sweater. Her defense lawyer only addressed the jurors for about 10 minutes, telling them his client is not guilty.
In the government’s opening argument, Pomerantz described a years-long bribery scheme that she said started after Nadine and Bob Menendez started dating in 2018. She said Nadine Menendez acted as the intermediary between her powerful partner and their bribers, who each wanted something from him.
“She was the bribe collector,” the prosecutor said. “She was willing to put her hands on bribes that the U.S. senator couldn’t be seen taking.”
Wael Hana, a friend of Nadine Menendez’s, was seeking a business deal, Pomerantz said. The prosecutor said Nadine Menendez set up meetings with Egyptian officials who wanted the senator — then a high-ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to help them secure hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the United States.
Bob Menendez secretly wrote a letter on Egypt’s behalf to convince other senators to release the aid money and also shared sensitive information with the Egyptian government, according to prosecutors.
Pomerantz said Bob Menendez’s advocacy helped Hana to get a lucrative deal as the sole certifier of halal exports from the U.S. to Egypt. In exchange, the prosecutor said, Hana gave Nadine Menendez a “no-show” job at his company.
Jose Uribe, another accused briber, wanted state prosecutors in New Jersey to stop pursuing a criminal case against one of Uribe’s business associates and an investigation into one of his employees, Pomerantz said.
She said Bob Menendez pressured New Jersey’s attorney general to stop pursuing both cases. Uribe thanked them by buying Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz. Pomerantz said Uribe met Nadine Menendez in a restaurant parking lot and gave her $15,000 in cash for a down payment, then continued to make monthly payments on the luxury car.
“The defendant needed a car, and the senator wanted to keep her happy.” Pomerantz told jurors.
The prosecutor said Bob Menendez also tried to sway the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey to dismiss a federal case against real estate developer Fred Daibes in exchange for bribes.
After the FBI searched the Menendez’s home and found gold bars worth $50,000 and envelopes filled with cash hidden in jacket pockets and shoes, investigators discovered Daibes’ fingerprints on several envelopes, while the gold bars had serial numbers connected to Daibes and Hana, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Pomerantz said Nadine Menendez brought the gold bars to a jeweler to sell them and lied that they were old family belongings.
Pomerantz said Nadine Menendez also lied to a federal grand jury and tried to create a fake paper trail to cover up her crimes. But the prosecutor said her guilt is evident in text messages and emails she exchanged with her co-defendants.
“This was not politics as usual,” she said. “This was politics for profit.”
Defense attorney Barry Coburn told jurors that the evidence in the case is “piecemeal” and that the government’s characterization of what happened is “grossly” inaccurate. He repeatedly uttered the phrase “knowledge and intent” during his brief opening statement and said prosecutors won’t be able to prove his client had “knowledge and intent” to break the law.
“There will be an absolute, utter failure of proof,” Coburn said.
Last week, Bob Menendez criticized prosecutors for proceeding with his wife’s trial days after she underwent reconstructive surgery.
“Only the [Southern District of New York] can be so cruel and inhumane,” he said in a post on social media. “They should let her recover!”
Menendez tagged President Donald Trump in the post.
Tagged
public safety
bob menendez
new jersey
Politics
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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