Nadine Menendez, 58, guilty of bribery and fraud related to using her husband’s influence on behalf of Egypt.
Nadine Menendez, the wife of former United States Senator Bob Menendez, has been convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in exchange for attempting to use her husband’s influence to benefit Egyptian officials and New Jersey businessmen.
Nadine Menendez, 58, was found guilty on Monday of all 15 counts she faced, including bribery, honest services wire fraud and conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent. She will be sentenced by US District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan on June 12.
The conviction comes after Bob Menendez, a Democrat who represented New Jersey for 18 and a half years, was sentenced in January to 11 years in prison.
“Nadine Menendez and Senator Menendez were partners in crime,” acting Manhattan US Attorney Matthew Podolsky said in a statement on Monday after the verdict.
“Together, Nadine Menendez and the Senator placed their own interests and greed ahead of the interests of the citizens the Senator was elected to serve.”
Outside the court, Menendez, who had pleaded not guilty, wore a pink mask as she stood next to her lawyer, Barry Coburn, who said he was “devastated by the verdict”.
“We fought hard and it hurts,” he said. “This is a very rough day for us.”
The once-powerful chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Menendez was convicted at trial last July on charges related to efforts to speed Egypt’s access to US military aid, as well as interfering in local prosecutions of businessmen, in exchange for bribes including gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz.
Bob Menendez, 71, resigned from the Senate the following month.
The evidence shown to jurors over a three-week trial followed the timeline of the whirlwind romance between the couple that began in early 2018 and continued after criminal charges were brought against them in September 2023.
Nadine Menendez was to be tried with her husband for her alleged role in his scheme, but her trial was postponed after her lawyers said she needed treatment for breast cancer.
Prosecutors said New Jersey businessman Wael Hana arranged meetings between the senator and Egyptian officials, who pressed him to sign off on military aid.
In return, the businessman put Nadine Menendez on the payroll of a company he controlled, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said Hana and Nadine Menendez communicated requests and directives from Egyptian officials to the senator.
Hana was convicted along with Bob Menendez and sentenced to just more than eight years in prison.
Another defendant, businessman Fred Daibes, was also convicted and received a seven-year prison sentence. Prosecutors said Daibes wanted the senator to protect him from a criminal case he was facing in New Jersey.
The couple also received a Mercedes-Benz from businessman Jose Uribe in return for Bob Menendez using his clout to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to stop investigating some of Uribe’s associates, prosecutors said.
Menendez was the first US senator in the country’s history to be found guilty of acting as a foreign agent.
