Meet the political couple in headlines for their alleged involvement in a bribery operation and claims that they are “agents” for the Egypt government.
Nadine Menendez’s Armenian heritage
Per New York magazine, Nadine was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1967. Both of her parents are Armenian, with some of her family members being killed in the Turkish assault on ethnic Armenians in 1915. In the 70s, Nadine and her family emigrated to the US to start a new life. After her divorce in 2005, Nadine rejoined the dating scene.
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It was Nadine and her influence over her then soon-to-be husband that led to the Senate approving a resolution to commemorate the Armenian genocide. Menendez, the senator for New Jersey, was quoted as saying on a US government website that, by passing the resolution, “the Senate finally stood up to confirm history” adding that “to overlook human suffering is not who we are as a people”.
Bob and Nadine Menendez’s engagement
Although some sources say that the couple met at an Ihop in Union City in 2018, according to New York magazine, the couple visited four continents in five months in 2019, and Bob proposed with a song while at the Taj Mahal.
According to The New York Times, Bob told Nadine that she would know if he was about to pop the question if he started singing a special song. Per the publication, he started signing “Never Enough” from The Greatest Showman and then went on to ask for her hand in marriage. One year later, they were married in an Armenian Church in Queens, New York.
The fatal car crash
In 2018, Nadine was involved in a car accident where she hit a pedestrian, Richard Koop, who died at the scene of the accident. Nadine refused to answer questions on the scene and was not tested for alcohol. She also refused to hand over her phone so that police could establish whether she had been texting and driving, per New York magazine. At the time, the incident went unreported in the news and it was only after Menendez’s indictments that the fatal accident was made public.
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Gold bars, bribery and legal cases
According to the US judiciary website, “Robert Menendez allegedly agreed to use his official position to benefit Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes and the government of Egypt in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez, which included gold bars, cash, and a luxury convertible”. The pair, the indictment said, were involved in “a years-long bribery scheme”.
Per New York magazine, it was Nadine who introduced her husband to Hana, with Hana allegedly doing “the bidding of the Egyptian military government”. Hana allegedly asked for political favours and, in return, gifted the couple with money, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz; he bought Nadine a new car after her accident. In text messages, Nadine has seemingly deeply implicated herself, messaging a driver after getting envelopes of cash to say, “Thank you. Christmas in January.”
In 2022, the house the couple share was searched and police found US$500,000 in Bob’s senate bomber jacket pockets and gold bars in the home. Bob has called the charge “absurd” and has refused to resign from his position.
