Nadine Menendez: Bribery Conviction, 54-Month Sentence, and Appeal

Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced on September 11, 2025, to 54 months in federal prison for her role in a bribery scheme that traded her husband’s political influence for gold bars, cash, a Mercedes-Benz, and other payments. A federal jury in the Southern District of New York had convicted her in April 2025 on all 15 counts she faced. She is scheduled to surrender on July 10, 2026, after the Second Circuit refused to let her remain free while she appeals.¹²

What the Government Said She Did

Prosecutors described Nadine Menendez as the connective tissue of the scheme. Beginning around 2018, shortly after she began dating the senator, she introduced him to her longtime friend Wael “Will” Hana and, from there, arranged meetings, passed information, and helped facilitate a series of corrupt exchanges with three New Jersey businessmen who wanted things from Bob Menendez’s office.³

Each businessman wanted something specific. Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, held a monopoly the Egyptian government had granted his company IS EG Halal to certify American meat exports as halal; prosecutors said the senator pressured a senior USDA official to protect that monopoly, ghostwrote a letter for the Egyptian government, and provided Egypt with sensitive U.S. information. Hana, in return, funneled cash to the couple, including a payment that stopped foreclosure on Nadine’s Englewood Cliffs home, and gave her a no-show job at his company.⁴⁵

Insurance broker Jose Uribe was under investigation by the New Jersey attorney general’s office. After Nadine’s Mercedes sedan was totaled in a December 2018 crash in Bogota that killed pedestrian Richard Koop (a crash for which police faulted Koop and declined to charge her), Uribe arranged for her to receive a new Mercedes-Benz convertible worth more than $60,000. Prosecutors said the senator then pressed state prosecutors to back off investigations into Uribe and his associates.⁶³

Real estate developer Fred Daibes was facing a federal bank fraud case tied to Mariner’s Bank. Prosecutors said he supplied cash and gold bars, and that in exchange the senator tried to influence who would serve as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and to steer the handling of Daibes’s case. Menendez also allegedly helped Daibes pursue a $95 million investment from a Qatari fund.³⁷

What the FBI Found in the Home

When agents searched the couple’s Englewood Cliffs house in June 2022, they recovered more than $480,000 in cash stuffed into envelopes, clothing, and a safe, along with over $100,000 in gold bars. Fingerprints from Bob Menendez and Fred Daibes turned up on some of the cash envelopes.⁴

The Charges and the Obstruction Allegations

Nadine Menendez faced 15 of the 18 counts in the indictment: conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, extortion, conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent, acting as a foreign agent, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and obstruction of justice.³

The obstruction counts, added by superseding indictment in March 2024, accused her of helping construct cover stories. She allegedly told a jeweler that the gold bars found in the home had belonged to her deceased mother, an account then relayed to the FBI. She and her husband allegedly agreed to describe the Mercedes payments as a loan rather than a bribe, and she allegedly lied about a large mortgage payment made on her behalf.⁸⁹

Why Her Trial Was Delayed

Nadine Menendez was originally set to be tried alongside her husband. In May 2024, Senator Menendez disclosed that she had been diagnosed with Grade 3 breast cancer requiring a mastectomy. On July 16, 2024, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein adjourned her trial indefinitely so she could focus on treatment. It was postponed again in January 2025 and ultimately began March 18, 2025. During the trial itself, proceedings paused for three days over her health, and Judge Stein permitted her to wear a pink breast cancer awareness pin in court over prosecutors’ objection.¹⁰¹¹¹²

The Verdict and the Defense Theory

On April 21, 2025, after a three-week trial, the jury found Nadine Menendez guilty on all 15 counts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Richenthal told jurors the evidence was “consistent and overwhelming” that she had acted as a “critical participant” and “go-between.”¹³³

Her attorney, Sarah Krissoff, argued that Nadine had been shaped by the Lebanese Civil War of her childhood, an abusive first marriage, a brain injury, and cancer, and that those experiences left her vulnerable to control by her powerful husband. The defense sought a one-year sentence; prosecutors asked for at least seven years.¹⁴

At sentencing, Nadine Menendez called her husband a “manipulative liar” who “strung me like a puppet,” saying she had been “duped by his power and stature” but adding, “in retrospect, I was a grown woman and should have known better.” She told the judge: “I was wrong about my husband. I now know, he’s not my savior.”¹⁵¹⁶

The 54-Month Sentence

Judge Stein imposed 54 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He ordered forfeiture of $922,188.10 and restitution of $1,400.⁴¹⁶

The judge rejected the defense’s portrait of a passive victim. “You are not the person they tried to depict. You knew what you were doing. Your role was purposeful,” he told her. He found she had acted as a “manager or supervisor” in the conspiracy, that she had “set up meetings” and “initiated actions,” and that co-defendants described her as “the true force behind the conspiracies.” He said he had offered “some leniency” because of her cancer diagnosis but that “people have to understand there are consequences.”¹⁶¹¹⁵

Stein also ruled that the conspiracy count for acting as a foreign agent was “subsumed” by the bribery conspiracy count and imposed no separate sentence for it.⁴

Bob Menendez’s Letter From Prison

Ahead of sentencing, Bob Menendez wrote Judge Stein from federal prison expressing regret for how his own defense team had characterized Nadine during his trial, when his lawyers called her “money-hungry” and suggested she had solicited bribes on her own. “To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong,” he wrote. He asked for mercy, saying she had “already suffered more than most people in a lifetime.”¹⁷

The former senator had been convicted in July 2024 on 16 counts after a nine-week trial before Judge Stein. He was sentenced to 11 years in January 2025 and reported to Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Pennsylvania in June 2025. His appeal is pending.¹⁸¹⁹

What Happened to the Co-Defendants

Jose Uribe pleaded guilty in March 2024 to seven counts, cooperated with the government, testified at trial, and received six months of home detention, three years of supervision, $866,947 in restitution, and a $292,000 money judgment. Wael Hana was convicted at trial in July 2024 and sentenced to eight years and fined more than $1 million. Fred Daibes was also convicted in July 2024 and received seven years for the bribery scheme, plus a concurrent three years after pleading guilty to the separate Mariner’s Bank fraud charge. He is appealing.²⁰²¹

The Appeal, the Bail Fight, and the Surrender Date

Nadine Menendez first moved for a new trial, arguing the evidence was insufficient and that the government had violated her Sixth Amendment right to counsel by effectively forcing her to replace her original attorney, David Schertler, whom prosecutors had suggested they might call as a witness. On July 31, 2025, Judge Stein denied the motion, finding the evidence “more than sufficient” and noting she had replaced Schertler well before trial without asking to re-engage him until after her conviction.²²

Her team then filed a notice of appeal to the Second Circuit and asked to remain free on bail during the appeal. Judge Stein denied the request in April 2026. The Second Circuit denied it again on June 9, 2026, concluding the legal questions she raised were not “substantial enough to delay the start of her four-and-a-half-year prison term.”²³²⁴

She is scheduled to surrender on July 10, 2026, to begin serving her 54-month sentence. Her appeal remains pending.²

The Unresolved Jewelry Dispute

Nadine Menendez has separately been trying to recover personal jewelry seized during the 2022 FBI search. Her attorneys filed a motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) in December 2025, arguing the items are family heirlooms unrelated to the scheme and not covered by the forfeiture order. Prosecutors say the jewelry may be held to satisfy the $922,188 forfeiture judgment. At a June 2026 hearing, her attorney told Judge Stein that the FBI could not locate some of the pieces. The matter is unresolved.²⁵²⁶

1
Courthouse News Service. Nadine Menendez Sentenced to 54 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme With Ex-Senator Husband
2
New Jersey Globe. Appellate Court Rejects Nadine Menendez Bid to Postpone Prison
3
NBC New York. Verdict Nadine Menendez Bribery Trial
4
U.S. Department of Justice. Nadine Menendez Sentenced to 54 Months in Prison
5
Politico. USDA Meat Monopoly Menendez Case
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CNN. Nadine Menendez Car Crash
7
Politico. Menendez Developer Pleads Guilty
8
NBC News. Nadine Menendez Claimed Gold Bars Belonged to Late Mother
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Jurist. US DOJ Files New Obstruction of Justice Charges Against Senator Bob Menendez and His Wife
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NBC News. Sen. Bob Menendez Wife Nadine Menendez Trial Delayed Indefinitely
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News 12 Connecticut. Nadine Menendez Trial Postponed to March 18
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The New York Times. Nadine Menendez Breast Cancer Bribery Trial
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Politico. Nadine Menendez Guilty Corruption Trial
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ABC7 News. Nadine Menendez Sentencing
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New Jersey Monitor. Ex-Senator’s Wife Gets 4.5 Years in Prison for Global Bribery Scheme
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CBS News New York. Nadine Menendez Sentencing
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NBC News. Nadine Menendez Attorneys Jailed Husband Ask Leniency
18
Politico. Former Sen. Bob Menendez Reports to Prison for 11-Year Sentence
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New Jersey Monitor. Former Sen. Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Bribery Scheme
20
New Jersey Monitor. Bob Menendez Trial Witness
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NBC New York. Real Estate Fred Daibes Jail Cliffside Park Edgewater Menendez
22
Courthouse News Service. Judge Rejects Nadine Menendez Retrial Citing More Than Sufficient Evidence
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The North Jersey Record. Nadine Arslanian Menendez Wife Bob Menendez Denied Bail
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Law360. 2nd Circuit Rejects Nadine Menendez’s Bail Bid During Appeal
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NBC New York. Nadine Menendez Wants Her Jewelry Back From the Feds
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Law360. FBI Misplaced Nadine Menendez’s Jewelry Judge Told