Wife of ex-pro-Armenian senator faces sentencing over global bribery scheme Article by The New York Times

The New York Times has published an article covering the trial of Nadine Arslanian, the wife of former pro-Armenian Senator Bob Menendez. Caliber.Az highlights the most significant excerpts from the article.

"For a time, Nadine Menendez was a powerful senator’s plus one. She dined with intelligence officials and the wives of ambassadors, shuttling frequently between New Jersey and Washington, where her husband, Robert Menendez, was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That life is gone.

On September 11, a federal judge in Manhattan is expected to sentence Menendez, 58, for her role in a complex scheme to trade her husband’s political clout for cash, gold and a Mercedes-Benz. The sentencing comes several months after Mr. Menendez, a Democrat who represented New Jersey in Congress for three decades, began serving an 11-year prison term.

Prosecutors have recommended that Menendez be sentenced to at least seven years for her role as a conduit for messages and bribes to her husband, and for arranging meetings with Egyptian officials.

The couple were tried separately after Menendez was diagnosed with breast cancer, and testimony in both trials took jurors from Cairo to Havana to Beirut, laying bare a global halal meat monopoly propped up with the senator’s support and used as a source of bribes. Both were convicted of each of the charges they faced.

The couple were tried separately after Menendez was diagnosed with breast cancer, and testimony in both trials took jurors from Cairo to Havana to Beirut, laying bare a global halal meat monopoly propped up with the senator’s support and used as a source of bribes. Both were convicted of each of the charges they faced.

Prosecutors, however, cited examples that they said showed she did not commit bribery “reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale.”

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

The former senator and Menendez were married five years ago, after a romance that began in early 2018 — soon after Bob Menendez had walked away from unrelated federal bribery charges in New Jersey. A jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, and prosecutors dropped the case after a judge dismissed the most serious charges.

Mr. Menendez was found guilty in July 2024, after a nine-week trial in Manhattan, becoming the only U.S. senator ever to be convicted of acting as an agent of a foreign government.

Menendez’s trial was postponed so that she could be treated for breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and completed reconstructive surgery.  She was convicted in April of bribery, obstruction of justice and conspiring to make Bob an agent of Egypt.

Two of the businessmen charged with the couple stood trial with Mr. Menendez last year, and were also convicted.

Wael Hana, a U.S. citizen born in Egypt who founded the halal meat certification company that prosecutors said was used to funnel bribes to the couple, is serving an eight-year prison term. Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, is serving a seven-year sentence.

The third businessman, Jose Uribe, a failed insurance broker who gave the couple the Mercedes-Benz, pleaded guilty and became a star government witness, testifying against the senator and Menendez at each of their trials. He is to be sentenced on October 9," the article reads.

By Aghakazim Guliyev