New York (AP), Nadine Menendes, the wife of former US senator Bob Menendes, was convicted on Monday for merging with her husband to accept bribes of money, gold bars and a luxury car by three New Jersey men seeking help with their business deals or legal problems.
The jurors returned a sentence for guilty of all points in the same federal courtroom in Manhattan, where a different jury condemned Bob Mendes on many of the same charges last year. It is alleged that the Democrat will start serving an 11-year prison in June.
Nadine Menendes, who was standing but did not seem to respond, since the sentence was delivered from the court before, was intended to be sentenced on June 12, six days after her husband was expected to report in prison.
Outside the Court of Justice, she wore a pink mask as she stood by her lawyer Barry Kobber, said she was “devastated by the sentence.”
“We fought hard and it hurts,” he said. “It’s a very rough day for us.”
The evidence shown to the jurors during a three -week process followed the time line of the romance of the vortex between the couple, which began in early 2018 and continued after criminal charges were filed in September 2023. Prosecutors have repeatedly said they were “crime partners”.
During the 2022 attack, the couple of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Home, FBI agents found gold bars worth nearly $ 150,000 and $ 480,000 in cash stuffed in boots, shoe boxes and jackets. There was a Mercedes-Benz convertible in the garage, also a supposed bribe.
Both Nadine and Bob Menendes said they were innocent and had never taken bribes.
Initially, they had to be tried together with the three businessmen, but Nadine Menendes’s test was postponed a year ago after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery.
The 71 -year -old Bob Menendes resigned from the Senate last August after his sentence. Before the charges were filed, he was chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Committee.
Prosecutors have accused Nadine Menendes of having begun to facilitate the bribe of the senator around the time when they began to meet before they got married in the fall of 2020.
At the time, she was in danger of losing her home at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, after missing nearly $ 20,000 mortgage payments, testing showed. A longtime friend, Wael Hannah, provided money to save the home – and prosecutors said that in return the senator was beginning to help the Hannah a business monopoly that has arranged with the Egyptian government to certify that the imported meat meets religious requirements.
Nadine Menendes also needed a new car after her old one was destroyed when he struck and killed a man crossing a street. (She did not encounter accusations of the crash). Prosecutors said businessman Jose Uribe gave her a Mercedes-Benz, and in return Bob Menendes used his button to put pressure on the New Jersey General Prosecutor to stop investigating some of Uribe’s associates.
The prosecutor said that more cash and gold bribes were paid to the couple from Fred Daybes, a prominent real estate developer, which prosecutors said he wanted the senator to protect him from a criminal case he was faced with in New Jersey. Prosecutors said Bob Menendes also helped Daibes provide an investment of $ 95 million from the Catari Investment Fund.
58 -year -old Nadine Menendes was described by prosecutors in his process as decisive for the scheme, which allows the senator to communicate with businessmen and Egyptian government officials.
In addition to his sentence on bribery, Bob Menendes was also convicted of acting as an agent of the Egyptian government. Prosecutors said, in exchange for some of the bribes, he ghosts to write Egyptian officials to give their colleagues senators to reassure their concerns about human rights and to encourage them to raise $ 300 million in military assistance.
Cobran is arguing during his final arguments before the jurors that the evidence is insufficient for a sentence.
“These things we talk about here are unproven,” he said.
He said that the deals that the Senator had with the businessmen were exactly what a politician should do for his constituents.
In a rebuttal of argumentation, US assistant admission Daniel Richenthal called on the jury to condemn Nadine Menendes, calling the evidence against her “consistent and prevailing”.
Uribe pleaded guilty and testified against others. Hannah and Dhabi were sentenced to senator. Hannah was sentenced to eight years in prison, while Daibs has been behind seven years behind bars.
The acting US lawyer Matthew Podolski said in a statement that the sentence “sends a clear message that the authorities of government officials cannot be released and that all who facilitate corruption will be held accountable for their actions.”