Who is Nadine Menendez? Sen. Bob Menendez's wife is at center of bribery trial
Washington — Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez, the wife of Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, was central to orchestrating the alleged scheme that ended in bribery charges against her and her husband. The senator was convicted Tuesday of accepting gold bars and nearly $500,000 in cash in return for political favors.
Though physically absent from her husband's trial, she was a prominent figure in the case, and is facing 15 charges herself. She has pleaded not guilty.
Her husband's attorneys denied any wrongdoing on his behalf and blamed Nadine Menendez for allegedly keeping her husband in the dark about her financial issues and business dealings.
"She kept things from him," the senator's attorney, Avi Weitzman, told jurors in May during opening statements. "She kept him in the dark on what she was asking others to give her. She was outgoing; she was fun loving. But she wasn't going to let Bob know that she had financial problems."
How was Nadine Menendez allegedly involved?
In four indictments and throughout the two-month trial, prosecutors alleged that the senator and his wife accepted bribes from three New Jersey businessmen and took actions that benefited the governments of Egypt and Qatar, while also meddling in criminal investigations related to the businessmen.
Sen. Menendez was convicted on all 16 felony counts. His wife faces 15 counts and has pleaded not guilty.
"Menendez was in charge. His wife, Nadine, was his go-between, demanding payment, receiving payment and passing messages, but always — always — keeping him informed," prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said last week in his closing arguments.
One of the businessmen, Jose Uribe, testified as the prosecution's star witness, telling jurors that he bribed the couple and directly asked the senator twice for his help in resolving criminal investigations involving his business associates. Uribe pleaded guilty in March and faces sentencing later this year.
The other two businessmen — Wael Hana, the owner of a halal meat certification company, and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer — were on trial with the senator and also found guilty.
The senator began dating Nadine Arslanian, a tall blonde who was born in Lebanon and 13 years his junior, in 2018. The two met at an IHOP in Union City, New Jersey, though there are different timelines for that first meeting, and some media reports say the two knew each other years before they started dating.
Shortly after their relationship began, according to prosecutors, she and her friend Hana introduced the senator to Egyptian intelligence and military officials, arranging dinners at expensive restaurants and meetings in his Senate office.
"What else can the love of my life do for you?" she asked at one of those dinners at an upscale steakhouse in Washington, according to an FBI agent who was undercover and eavesdropping on the group from a nearby table.
Nadine Menendez and Hana were intermediaries between the senator and Egyptian officials, passing along sensitive and, at the time, nonpublic information to the Egyptians about the number of people stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and their nationalities, prosecutors alleged. When an Egyptian official wanted help drafting a letter to lobby the senator's colleagues to support U.S. aid to Egypt, Nadine Menendez asked the senator to "fix this letter" because the official and Hana had gotten her "clearance for a project," according to text messages in evidence.
It was the beginning of a scheme that would pave the way for lucrative deals between the businessmen and the governments of Qatar and Egypt and included interference in criminal investigations involving the businessmen and their allies, according to prosecutors. In exchange, the Menedezes allegedly received stacks of cash, more than a dozen gold bars and a new luxury car.
Nadine Menendez was in need of a car because she had destroyed hers in a crash in December 2018 when she hit and killed a pedestrian. She was not charged in the death.
Prosecutors say she texted Hana about her lack of a car on multiple occasions after the crash. He connected her with Uribe, whose business associate who had been implicated in an insurance fraud case.
Uribe, a former insurance broker, testified that Hana told him he had "a way to make these things go away" and mentioned the senator and Nadine Menendez.
"I agreed with Nadine Menendez and other people to provide a car for Nadine, in order to get the power and influence of Mr. Menendez," Uribe told jurors, adding that the deal was "to kill and stop all investigations" into his associates.
In April 2019, Uribe bought Nadine Menendez a black Mercedes-Benz convertible, meeting her in a restaurant parking lot to hand over $15,000 in cash that she used for the down payment, and later arranging car payments.
"It might be a fantastic 2019 all the way around," she texted the senator a few weeks later after it appeared likely that Egypt would grant a monopoly to Hana's company in a deal that provided a "revenue stream" for him to pay the Menendezes, prosecutors alleged.
With the assistance of the senator, Nadine Menendez set up a shell company in summer 2019, which was used to receive payments from a "low-or-no-show job," according to prosecutors. Hana's business associates testified that they never saw her do any work for the company while she was paid $10,000 a month for three months.
At the time, prosecutors say she was tens of thousands of dollars behind on her mortgage and facing foreclosure. Hana's company paid about $23,000 to bring the mortgage payments up to date, according to witness testimony and evidence, while the senator allegedly sought to pressure New Jersey officials to end the fraud investigation linked to Uribe.
After the FBI searched the couple's Englewood Cliffs house, Nadine Menendez and Uribe met to discuss what they would tell investigators about the car payments. They agreed to characterize the bribe payments as loans, Uribe said. The senator then wrote checks to his wife, who then wrote checks to Hana and Uribe, according to witness testimony and evidence.
In December 2022, Nadine Menendez sent Uribe a check for $21,000, with a note saying it was for a "personal loan." Uribe said he's not sure how she calculated the amount, which was less than he had spent on her car payments. The check to Hana for about $23,000 was also characterized as a loan.
Prosecutors said the couple "caused their counsel to make statements regarding the bribe money" which they "knew were false, in an effort to interfere with an investigation."
When will Nadine Menendez go on trial?
Originally scheduled to be tried with her husband, Nadine Menendez's trial has been postponed indefinitely as she recovers from breast cancer surgery.
The diagnosis was revealed in a statement by the senator a day after his attorneys pinned the blame on her during opening statements of his trial. The jury was not told of her health issues in court.
In a court filing in June, her attorney said she "recently has had invasive cancer surgery, has medical equipment implanted in her body and is in intense, chronic pain."
Details of her life
In a podcast interview in 2020, Nadine Menendez said she was born in Beirut to Armenian parents and her family fled to Greece and England during the Lebanese civil war. They eventually settled in the United States, living in California before moving to New York.
She attended New York University, majoring in international politics and French culture and civilization.
"She was dazzling to Bob," Weitzman, the senator's lawyer, told jurors in May. "She is a beautiful and tall international woman who grew up part of her life in Lebanon. She speaks four languages. She's highly educated, having received both a bachelor's and master's degree from NYU."
The indictments described the divorced mother of two as unemployed when she met the senator. Her younger sister, Katia Tabourian, testified that Nadine Menendez did not work during her first marriage and did not have any regular employment after the 15-year marriage ended. She supported herself with inheritance from their mother, alimony and child support, Tabourian said.
"For decades, Nadine has had to find a way to get by, long before she ever met Bob. How was she paying for kids' clothes? How was she paying for dinners? How was she living her life without a career?" Menendez's lawyer Adam Fee said last week in his closing argument. "Nadine was supporting herself by selling gold, by selling jewelry, by selling other things. I don't think she wanted to do that because these were family heirlooms, but I don't think she had any other option. … That's why there's cash in her house."
Tabourian said her sister and the senator were "extremely loving" and "caring." They broke up in late 2018, she said, because her sister's ex-boyfriend "was creating a lot of chaos in her relationship with the senator."
In October 2019, Nadine Menendez sat on a bench in front of the Taj Mahal as the senator stood behind her, with his hands on her shoulders, singing, "Never Enough" from the movie "The Greatest Showman."
"Towers of gold are still too little, these hands could hold the world, and it'll never be enough, never be enough for me," he sang.
He pulled a ring out his pocket to propose and the two kissed and hugged.
The senator told the New York Times after their engagement that his fiancee was "beautiful and bright and had such a great personality. There was just this aura about her."
They were married a year later in a ceremony that was held outdoors due to the pandemic, the senator shared on his Facebook page.
"It was a small and intimate wedding, nothing fancy," Weitzman said.
But the couple lives mostly separate lives, according to the senator's lawyer. About six months before they got married, the senator moved into Nadine Menendez's home, where she had lived for about 20 years. She occasionally visited her husband in Washington, D.C.
"They did not share any bank accounts, any credit cards, or any other financial obligations," Weitzman said. "They had separate finances. The house that Nadine owned was in her name, not Bob's, and she had a mortgage on it that Bob did not pay, and didn't receive the statements for."
Prosecutors asserted that it's inaccurate to portray the senator and his wife as living separate lives, introducing evidence that showed Menendez regularly checked in on her location using the "Find My Friends" iPhone app, as well as text messages about Nadine Menendez running errands for the senator and doing laundry.
The senator's lawyers said Nadine Menendez's relationship with her ex-boyfriend was abusive and the senator was checking on her location because he was concerned about her safety. A judge limited what jurors could hear about the alleged abuse, saying "this is not going to turn into a soap opera."
It was also noted during the trial that Nadine Menendez locked her closet, where investigators discovered the gold bars and some of the cash. The senator did not have a key to the closet, his lawyers said.
Tabourian said her sister always kept her closet locked because she had a nanny years ago that stole cash from her.
"She keeps her nice clothes in there, her bags, her designer bags, designer shoes. She keeps her jewelry in there. She keeps her valuables in there," Tabourian said.