Wife of ex pro-Armenian senator faces 7+ years in prison amid bribery scheme trial

US-based The New York Times has published a detailed article focusing on the ongoing trial of Nadine Arslanian, the wife of former US Senator Bob Menendez. Caliber.Az ipresents its readers an adapted version of the piece.

“Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of at least seven years for Nadine Menendez, who was convicted of being at the center of a yearslong bribery scheme with her husband, Robert Menendez.

Mr. Menendez, a former senator from New Jersey, is serving an 11-year prison term for his role in the conspiracy. Two businessmen convicted of giving the couple bribes of gold bullion and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in exchange for political favors from Mr. Menendez, are also serving lengthy sentences.

Ms. Menendez 'did not commit bribery reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale,' prosecutors in the office of Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, told the judge.

'She did so eagerly, for years, and in a scheme implicating foreign relations, national security and the integrity of state and federal law enforcement,' the prosecutors said.

Ms. Menendez, 58, is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11 in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Ms. Menendez’s lawyers have asked the judge, Sidney H. Stein, to allow her to avoid a lengthy period of incarceration, recommending that he impose a sentence of one year and one day. Her lawyers noted that Ms. Menendez has been battling breast cancer and that a lengthy sentence would 'obliterate any possibility' she would receive proper medical care.

But the prosecutors, in their filing, said they did not object to the judge setting a surrender date far enough in the future to give Ms. Menendez time 'to promptly schedule and to complete the recommended surgeries and recovery' before beginning her sentence.

Mr. Menendez, a Democrat who for years led the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted last year after a nine-week trial in Manhattan of taking bribes in exchange for steering aid and weapons to Egypt and trying to scuttle state and federal criminal cases that threatened his allies. He was the first US senator ever convicted of acting as an agent of a foreign government, a charge he vehemently denied and is appealing. He resigned from the Senate after his conviction.

The two businessmen who stood trial with Mr. Menendez were also convicted. Wael Hana, the founder of a halal meat certification company that prosecutors say was used to funnel bribes to the couple, was sentenced to eight years in prison; Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, is serving a seven-year term.

Ms. Menendez’s trial was postponed as she was treated for breast cancer. She was convicted in April after prosecutors presented her as a willing go-between who shuttled messages and bribes to her husband.

Prosecutors noted in filing that Ms. Menendez had met with Mr. Hana the day after her first date with the senator to discuss “ways in which her relationship with Menendez could result in a paycheck for her.”

By Vafa Guliyeva