By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced on Thursday to 4-1/2 years in prison for her role in an international corruption scheme involving gold bars that led to the downfall of her once-powerful husband.
Nadine Menendez, 58, was convicted in April of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes in exchange for her husband doing favors for Egypt and New Jersey businessmen. She was found guilty of all 15 counts she faced, including bribery and fraud. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, represented New Jersey for 18-1/2 years in the Senate.
The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan.
Bob Menendez, who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was sentenced in January to 11 years in prison after his conviction at a separate trial. Prosecutors said he accepted bribes including gold bars, cash and a Mercedes-Benz vehicle in exchange for shepherding U.S. military aid to Egypt and interfering in local prosecutions of businessmen.
“The defendant and her partner in crime, former Senator Robert Menendez, engaged in the most brazen form of public corruption – gold bars, cash and a luxury car in exchange for a senator’s power,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nadine Menendez’s defense lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors had urged Stein to sentence Nadine Menendez to at least seven years in prison, arguing that she played a critical role in the scheme. Her lawyers had suggested that a sentence of just over a year was appropriate, arguing she was acting at her husband’s direction.
“Nadine was not an elected politician, a pillar in her community, or even a businesswoman – she was an obedient wife,” her lawyers wrote in an August 22 court filing.
Nadine Menendez was to be tried together with her husband, but her trial was postponed after her lawyers said she needed treatment for breast cancer.
Bob Menendez was the first U.S. senator found guilty of acting as a foreign agent. He resigned from the Senate in August 2024 and is serving his sentence at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
