Gold bar Bob Menendez’s wife tells friends she will go to prison because of cash crisis

Gold bar Bob Menendez’s wife tells friends she will go to prison because of cash crisis
By: NY Post - US-News Posted On: April 19, 2024 View: 14

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife has confided in friends that she is convinced she will go to prison because she is short of money for legal representation, The Post has learned.

Nadine Arslanian, the Democrat’s second wife, faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted on bribery and corruption charges when she goes on trial in July.

Her attorneys withdrew from her case earlier this month after successfully having her trial put off until July because she has “a serious medical condition” — leaving her currently without a defense team.

Arslanian, 57, will be tried separately from her husband — with whom she attended a 2022 White House state dinner — and could be “incuplated” by him. But they remain married and living together in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. REUTERS

Now multiple members of her social circle have told The Post that Arslanian, a mother of two from her first marriage, is expecting to be convicted and jailed after her July trial because of her concern over cash.

Her husband — who lewdly nicknames her “Bubbles” over her cleavage — has a legal defense fund which has already paid for expert witnesses for his case and made towards some of her legal costs but she fears it cannot come close to covering the final bill.

She will face a jury at federal court in Manhattan after her husband’s separate trial which begins on May 6 — at which his lawyers say he might “inculpate” his wife.

But the couple remain married and living together in the home they share in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Nadine Menendez loved being on the social circuit. She partied with “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast members (from left) Jacqueling Laurita, Kim “Kim D” De Paola and Carolina Manza. Nadine Arslanian/Facebook
Senator Menendez proposed to Nadine Arslanian in front of the Taj Mahal while he was on an official government trip to India in 2019. Robert&Nadine/YouTube

The $1.2 million house is where the FBI found stacks of cash and gold bars when they raided it, leading to Menendez, Arslanian and three New Jersey businessmen being charged with a sprawling scheme to sell his power and secretly conspire to act as agents for the foreign governments of Egypt and Qatar.

The couple is accused of trading political favors for the loot as well as a Mercedes convertible, according to a federal indictment.

Menendez, 70, Arslanian, 57, and two of their co-accused, Fred Daibes and Wael Hanna, have vigorously denied all charges, although one of the five, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

On Tuesday, a bombshell secret filing was unsealed in which Menedez’s attorneys said that, if he takes the stand in his own defense, his evidence could “inculpate Nadine.”

Nadine Menendez’s lawyers asked to withdraw from her case earlier this month, and said that her trial needed to be postponed to the summer because of a “serious medical condition.” Menendez’s trial will begin next month. Getty Images
These are the gold bars the FBI found in Menendez and Arslanian’s home.

One of the circle who has heard Arslanian’s fear is Kim De Paola, former cast member of the “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” who told The Post: “She has said that she thinks she is going to jail.

De Paola knew Arslanian from parties and fashion shows for Posche by Kim D, De Paola’s now shuttered Allendale, NJ, boutique and said that few people from their North Jersey social scene have any sympathy for the couple — or sense of surprise that Menendez would pin the blame on his wife.

“Everyone despises Menendez,” said De Paolo. “And any man who throws his wife under the bus, does not deserve any respect.

“In New Jersey, men will stand by their women. Like he didn’t know what was going on! To throw a woman under the bus like that is disgusting.”

Arslanian poses with Kim DePaola from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” at the soft opening at the Englewood Cliffs outpost of American Cut, run by celebrity chef Marc Forgione (third from right). Nadine Arslanian/Facebook

De Paola, host of the “Get Real with Kim D” podcast and author of an upcoming memoir “My Life with the Big Boys,” said that Arslanian was always on the lookout for the “next best thing” when it came to her romantic life.

She divorced Raffi Arslanian, her first husband in 2005, and later dated New Jersey lawyer Douglas Anton, who represented singer R. Kelly at his sex-trafficking trial in 2021.

“When she used to come to my events, she had her boobs hanging to her knees,” De Paolo said.

“We’d all look at her and say ‘what in the world?’ She was always trying to be provocative. She is just very trashy. And I think that’s how she got the men.”

De Paula likened the couple to Depression-era bandits “Bonnie and Clyde” and said they are both obsessed with a luxurious lifestyle.

Nadine Arslanian was always looking for the “next best thing” when it came to men, said Kim De Paola, who knows her from the New Jersey social scene. She posed on a Manhattan street in 2004, a year before she divorced her first husband.

“In life when you put out these kinds of things when you are after the Louis Vuitton bag, things like this happen,” she said. “What do you expect?”

Danny Onorato, a Washington DC lawyer representing Arslanian, refused comment Thursday. Robert Luskin, a lawyer representing Menendez, did not respond to a request for comment.

Arslanian was involved in a love triangle, first revealed by The Post, with Anton and Menendez.

De Paola said that Arslanian had boasted about the senator despite people knowing she was dating Anton.

Arslanian allegedly introduced her husband to their co-accused Wael Hana, (far left) an Egyptian-American businessman who was awarded a lucrative halal contract for all imports going into Egypt. Hana denies all charges. New York Post

“I was sitting at my salon and heard the girls talking that Nadine had come in and told everybody that she’s in love and that he’s a senator,” De Paola said, adding that she reached out to Anton, her former lawyer, with the news.

Another friend, author and podcast host John Alite, a former mobster, who was close to Arslanian, however said of her, “She is not the one who is a gold digger. She is totally isolated in that marriage.”

Alite told The Post that he has not heard from his former friend since she married the senator.

As well as the federal indictment, Arslanian’s possible legal troubles include when she killed a man with her Mercedes in Bogota, NJ, in December 2018.

The New Jersey attorney general announced a new investigation into the death and its aftermath last year.

Arslanian called a friend for help before she called police when she was involved in a 2018 crash in Bogota, NJ. The crash left pedestrian Richard Koop dead. Arslanian refused to give her cell phone to cops. Bogota Police Department

She called a friend for help before she called 911 — and may only have called the number when police had already arrived then told them the wrong location for the crash, which killed Bogota resident Richard Koop.

Dashcam footage and 911 recordings do not show her asking after the victim, but they do show her refusing to have her cellphone searched.

A retired Hackensack chief of police, Michael Mordaga, came to the scene at her friend’s request and helped her leave. She did not take a field sobriety test, and was not charged with any wrongdoing.

But Arslanian did not hesitate to dial 911 repeatedly at her home, documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws by NorthJersey.com disclosed.

Arslanian bought the Englewood Cliffs home with her first husband Raffi Arslanian in 1999. The property was raided by federal agents who discovered hundreds of thousands in cash and gold bars, leading to the indictment against them. Christopher Sadowski

In the last several years, she has called and visited the Englewood Cliffs police department 18 times, complaining about suspicious vehicles outside her home, repeated calls from a blocked number to her cell phone and a neighbor dumping animal waste on her suburban property, among other complaints.

Menendez also called the police to the house once, in September 2020, a month before they married, to report that a suspicious car was parked near the driveway.

The senator told the police that the driver was “male with medium complexion skin, dark hair and appeared to look Arabic,” northjersey.com reported.

“I don’t blame her for being anxious now, because you know what she’s going through,” an Englewood Cliffs neighbor told The Post Wednesday.

“But even before all of this, look at all the craziness her first husband dumped her with.

“I don’t know if she has OCD or she has anxiety, but I could see someone going through a bad divorce, having no money, being anxious.”

Additional Reporting by Reuven Fenton

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