Menendez spouse ought to be sentenced to 7 years, US legal professional says – NBC New York
Federal prosecutors need the spouse of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez to serve no less than seven years in federal jail for her function within the wide-ranging “gold bar” bribery scheme.
Of their court docket submitting, prosecutors argued Nadine Menendez deserved vital jail time as a result of she knowingly joined her husband in serving to to orchestrate the unlawful payoffs.
“The Authorities considers the defendant, who performed a important function on the coronary heart of the scheme, to be the second most culpable member of the scheme second solely to [Bob] Menendez”, federal prosecutors wrote of their 58-page sentencing memorandum.
Federal prosecutors stated Nadine Menendez’s sentence ought to be about so long as sentences for the 2 businessmen who have been convicted at trial for paying the bribes. Corrupt developer Fred Daibes was sentenced to seven years. Businessman Wael Hana was sentenced to eight years.
Prosecutors stated Nadine Menendez was a accomplice in her husband’s crimes, serving to to gather payoffs from three New Jersey businessmen in a wide-ranging scheme. The protection argued a number of the gold she acquired was not bribes, however relatively have been handed down from her household or have been items from businessmen who have been longtime buddies. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst stories.
Prosecutors stated Nadine Menendez helped to promote the facility of then-Senator Menendez (D) in change for hundreds of {dollars} value of bribes, together with money, gold, bars, paychecks for a no-show job, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
“The defendant engaged, for years, in a corruption and overseas affect scheme of gorgeous brazenness, breadth, and period, leading to exceptionally grave abuses of energy on the highest ranges of the Legislative Department of the US Authorities,” prosecutors stated.
Attorneys for Nadine Menendez final week requested a sentence of a yr and a day. Her husband of 5 years, Bob Menendez, wrote a letter to Decide Sidney Stein on her behalf. He wrote he regrets that his spouse was painted as “money-hungry” throughout his separate bribery trial.
“I remorse that I did not totally preview what my Protection Lawyer stated about Nadine throughout my trial and in his summation. To recommend that Nadine was cash hungry or in monetary want, and due to this fact would solicit others for assist, is solely fallacious,” he wrote.
Bob Menendez is at the moment serving an 11-year sentence at FCI Allentown in Pennsylvania.
Nadine Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11.
