{"id":10596,"date":"2025-04-22T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=10596"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:16:12","slug":"ex-us-senators-wife-convicted-in-gold-bars-bribery-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=10596","title":{"rendered":"Ex-US senator\u2019s wife convicted in gold bars bribery scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York jury has found the wife of a former New Jersey senator guilty of her role in a years-long bribery scheme that included stacks of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n

Nadine Menendez, 58, was found guilty on all 15 counts, including bribery and obstruction of justice, for aiding her husband, ex-Sen Robert Menendez, who received lavish gifts in exchange for political favours.<\/p>\n

She was indicted with her husband in September 2023, but had her trial delayed for breast cancer treatments.<\/p>\n

A sentencing date for Menendez has been set for 12 June. Her husband was convicted in July 2024 and\u00a0sentenced to 11 years<\/a> in prison.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said the couple were “partners in crime” who participated in “corrupt official acts”.<\/p>\n

“Today’s verdict sends the clear message that the power of government officials may not be put up for sale,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Menendez was an indispensable part of\u00a0her husband’s bribery scheme<\/a>, telling the jury it was she who often accepted the cash and other gifts on behalf of the former senator.<\/p>\n

Her husband<\/a>, at the time, was the top-ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than five years, a position that gave him significant influence over US foreign policy.<\/p>\n

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“She was keeping him in the loop every step of the way,” Paul M Monteleoni, a prosecutor, said in a closing argument, the New York Times reported.<\/p>\n

Menendez’s lawyers said the government failed to prove a link between the gold and stacks of cash found in the couple’s home to any “official act” taken by her husband.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Barry Coburn, said he was “devastated by the verdict”, standing outside the New York courthouse on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We fought hard and it hurts,” Mr Coburn said. “This is a very rough day for us.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Menendez and her husband were convicted of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to secretly aid the Egyptian government using the former senator’s perch in Washington, prosecutors had said.<\/p>\n

The government backed up its claims with evidence from a\u00a02022 FBI search at the couple’s New Jersey home<\/a>\u00a0that included over $100,000 (\u00a380,000) worth of gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in envelopes or hidden in clothes.<\/p>\n

They also showed digital evidence that included text messages between the couple and their associates, and a Google search by the former senator that said: “How much is one kilo of gold worth?”<\/p>\n

Fred Daibes, a New Jersey property developer, and Wael Hana, the Egyptian-born operator of a halal certification company, were also charged and convicted for their roles.<\/p>\n

Insurance broker Jose Uribe pleaded guilty in March 2024 to charges related to the corrupt scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New York jury has found the wife of a former New Jersey senator guilty of her role in a years-long bribery scheme that included stacks of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz. Nadine Menendez, 58, was found guilty on all 15 counts, including bribery and obstruction of justice, for aiding her husband, ex-Sen Robert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,41,22],"tags":[3392,3390,3393,3391],"class_list":["post-10596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fish-tv","category-general-news","category-world","tag-barry-coburn","tag-nadine-menendez","tag-paul-m-monteleoni","tag-robert-menendez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10598,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10596\/revisions\/10598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}