Nadine Menendez received a sentence of four and a half years in prison for bribery and corruption last month. Her husband, former US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), is currently serving an 11-year sentence for similar offenses.
A jury determined that the couple amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes convertible while Robert Menendez exploited his influential role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to assist two businessmen in securing contracts and evading criminal charges. They were also found guilty of conspiring to support Egypt in obtaining US weapons and conceal the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
In an excerpt from their new book, “Gold Bar Bob: The Downfall of the Most Corrupt US Senator,” authors Isabel Vincent and Thomas Jason Anderson narrate the story of how the couple met.
Statuesque blonde Nadine Arslanian epitomized Bob Menendez’s dream partner.
During a fundraiser for his re-election at an extravagant Saddle River estate owned by Armenian-American benefactors in 2010, the New Jersey Democrat noticed her instantly.
Arslanian, who had lived luxuriously in Lebanon before her family fled due to the civil war, was involved with someone at the time.
The senator, conversely, was dating Gwendolyn Beck, another striking blonde with ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who has been implicated in his controversial lifestyle. Epstein had funded Beck’s independent congressional campaign in Virginia in 2014.
During their initial meeting, Nadine remained composed, though friends noted that she was attracted to the influential senator like a moth to a flame.
“Even when she was involved, she was always on the lookout for the next best thing,” stated fashion designer and former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” alum Kim De Paola. “Whenever she attended my events, she flaunted herself too much.”
Nadine, often seen at parties hosted by the “Real Housewives” and the cast of “Mob Wives” in New Jersey, had a penchant for pursuing individuals of high social standing. Although she later claimed to the New York Times that she was unaware Menendez was a senator upon their first meeting, those in her social circle found it hard to believe.
“Nadine has always been mesmerized by power,” a friend remarked. “When I heard she was dating Bob, I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ but it didn’t shock me much.”
“It was always about ‘Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob!’ as she started dating him,” proclaimed another acquaintance, noting that for several months, she seemed torn between Menendez and Doug Anton, a well-known attorney who had represented the currently incarcerated R. Kelly.
Menendez, who faced an corruption indictment that resulted in a deadlocked jury in 2017, ultimately separated from Beck.
In New Jersey, he mingled in the same circles as Nadine, and they soon became romantically entwined; however, he later ended the relationship due to her indecision about whom she desired to be with.
Despite being involved with Anton, Nadine reached out to Bob on his 64th birthday, January 1, 2018, proposing they celebrate his acquittal together.
“Nadine craves everything the world can offer,” commented a former boyfriend who dated her following her divorce from New Jersey real estate mogul Raffi Arslanian. “She aspires to be included everywhere.”
Known in the Armenian community as “psycho Barbie,” Nadine was previously accused of stalking a former partner. Reports suggested she keyed his new girlfriend’s car and appeared at his home on Christmas Day in 2010 with her children in an effort to reconcile, leading to a restraining order.
“Nadine always felt she was above the law,” the former partner claimed.
With Menendez in the picture, friends recounted how she expertly played hard to get, even comparing him with Anton. When they resumed dating in 2018, Menendez reportedly dispatched Capitol Police officers to Anton’s Hackensack office to remove him from the equation.
“He terrified Doug,” remarked John Alite, a former associate of the Gotti crime family and Nadine’s friend.
Nevertheless, Nadine remained hesitant to fully commit to Menendez. An acquaintance often spied her socializing with the attorney at a favored cigar lounge, only to later rendezvous with Menendez for dinner at Regina’s Steakhouse and Grill, a restaurant he frequented in Teaneck.
Confronted with the possibility of losing her Englewood Cliffs home, Nadine eventually opted for Menendez, who, a source claimed, “promised her everything.”
Nadine—whom Bob affectionately called “Bubbles” due to her voluptuous figure—quickly asked the influential senator to arrange a meeting with some Egyptian officials who were acquaintances of her New Jersey friends.
“Would you mind discussing the nation’s relations with the International Monetary Fund and significant projects like the ‘new Suez Canal?’” she texted him.
“Really???” Menendez replied, promptly searching online for information related to “Egypt and International Monetary Fund.”
Meetings with Egyptian officials commenced at Bob’s preferred steakhouses in both New Jersey and Washington, DC. Soon, the couple assisted in securing a lucrative halal certification contract from Egypt for one of Nadine’s friends, Wael Hana, who was also a co-conspirator in their scheme.
Menendez also engaged in “ghostwriting” correspondence for Egypt while it sought to persuade other senators to lift the suspension on $300 million in military aid. At Nadine’s urging, he also aided Egyptian intelligence in covering up the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered and dismembered within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, with Egyptian intelligence supplying the substances necessary for his demise.
Shortly following Khashoggi’s death, Nadine was involved in a road incident resulting in the death of pedestrian Richard Koop, age 49, in Bogota, New Jersey. She insisted on her innocence, claiming she did “nothing wrong” and was not tested for alcohol or drugs afterward. Fortunately for her, a connected acquaintance arrived at the scene promptly, having been alerted by one of Nadine’s socialite friends who was supposed to dine with her.
Nadine appeared mostly unconcerned about Koop, who lay motionless on the road beside her damaged Mercedes. Desperate for a new vehicle, she solicited Hana and his network to provide one, promising favors in return from Menendez, whom she referred to as “l’amour de ma vie (the love of my life).”
Years later, after federal agents discovered large sums of cash and gold bars concealed in their home, both Nadine and Robert were convicted of bribery and corruption charges in separate trials.
During his trial, Menendez cast blame on his ailing wife, who was suffering from cancer at the time.
In a tearful address to the judge during her sentencing in September, Nadine pointed the finger back at her husband.
In an effort to reduce her imprisonment term, Nadine—reportedly cancer-free for a year now according to sources—urged her friends and family members to write letters to the court vouching for her “good character.”
One particularly notable letter came from her hairstylist, Nikole Juliano.
“In my career, I’ve styled hundreds of heads—many of them frequently for years—and yet Nadine stands out like few individuals do,” she wrote.
Juliano intended to highlight Nadine’s kindness and care for others, sentiments many now contest.
