From gold bars to flashy cars and envelopes stuffed with cash, the sweeping federal corruption indictment unsealed last month against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, paints a picture of the bribes the pair allegedly accepted in exchange for the senator’s political influence in garish detail.
But newly revealed circumstances surrounding a fatal crash — first reported by the Bergen Record and New York Times — provides insight into the reason Arslanian Menendez was in search of a new Mercedes-Benz in 2019.
In December 2018, according to the reports, Arslanian Menendez struck and killed a pedestrian in front of his home in northern New Jersey. The impact of the crash shattered Arslanian Menendez’s windshield and damaged the front of the car, according to police reports.
Police at the time quickly determined Arslanian Menendez was not at fault, and she was not charged in the incident.
Here’s what you should know.
The crash occurred the night of Dec. 12, 2018, around 7:30 p.m., according to police records reviewed by the Record and the Times. Arslanian Menendez — who, at the time, was dating U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez — was driving a black Mercedes-Benz through the dark streets of Bogota, a suburban borough in northern New Jersey.
Just after 7:35 p.m., police there responded to reports of a pedestrian hit by a car. The crash left Richard Koop, 49, fatally injured in front of his home.
“Some guy just jumped in front of my car on my windshield,” Arslanian Menendez told a 911 dispatcher.
An attorney for Koop’s estate told the Record that Arslanian Menendez “came flying down the street and killed him.” According to the Times, moments before the crash, Koop had been dropped off by an Uber across the street from his apartment. By the time officers arrived on the scene, Koop had no pulse, police said, and was pronounced dead less than an hour later at a nearby hospital.
Police dash camera footage capturing the moments after the crash shows Arslanian Menendez, arms crossed over a dress and fur coat, asking police if she can speak with an attorney.
“If we can clear you from any wrongdoing, I want to get you home and comfortable, and not here any more,” an officer tells her, asking again for her statement.
“He jumped on my windshield,” Arslanian Menendez reiterates after asking the officer where her damaged car will be towed.
Roughly 30 minutes after the collision, according to the time-stamped footage, a man describing himself as a retired officer from Hackensack can be heard off-camera talking with police.
“I don’t want to interfere with you guys at all,” the unidentified man tells police, later asking if prosecutors will be involved. “I don’t even know her. That’s my buddy’s wife who’s friends with her. And he said, ‘Could you do me a favor and take her up there, because her friend just got in a car accident.’”
Shortly after, police allowed Arslanian Menendez to go home. Police determined she was not at fault, and she was not charged in the crash.
The indictment only refers to the crash as an “accident” that left Arslanian Menendez without a car, but details about the fatal incident shed light on the urgency behind one of the bribes prosecutors allege Menendez and his now-wife accepted months later: a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible.
According to the indictment, weeks after the fatal crash Arslanian Menendez sent multiple text messages to Wael Hana, one of the businessmen prosecutors say accepted political favors from the senator, about her lack of a car. By January, prosecutors say the senator agreed to pressure the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office on a pending criminal case that had been filed against another of the indicted businessmen’s associates in exchange for a new Mercedes.
By February, the agreement appeared to be settled. Arslanian Menendez texted the businessman: “All is GREAT! I’m so excited to get a car next week. !!”
In March, she and Menendez chatted about the color scheme for their new convertible, the indictment said.
And by April, one of the businessmen allegedly handed a $15,000 cash down payment for the car to Arslanian Menendez in a restaurant parking lot. Arslanian Menendez falsified her employment and income to secure financing for the luxury car, according to the indictment, and the businessman allegedly went on to cover an additional $30,000 in car payments made in 32 installments. After the FBI began investigating in 2022, prosecutors said Arslanian Menendez returned to the businessman $21,000 in a check marked “personal loan.”
After the purchase at the Edison dealership was complete, prosecutors say Arslanian Menendez on April 5, 2019, texted the senator, then her boyfriend. “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes. ❤️.”
No. A spokesperson for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday that “the Bogota Police Department investigated this crash and determined that no criminal conduct was involved.”
According to the Record, police wrote in an investigation report that Koop was jaywalking, and did not cross the street at an intersection or in a marked crosswalk.
Koop was an affable fisherman and father who spent his life in northern New Jersey, those who knew him told the Record.
After the crash, directly in front of Koop’s home on East Main Street in Bogota, police said the man “appeared to have severe head trauma, bleeding from the back of his head, bleeding from the face and possible fractured legs and arms.”
The Record reported that the family received $60,000 in a settlement from an insurance company following the crash.
What have Arslanian Menendez and Menendez said about the crash?
Arslanian Menendez’s attorney, David Schertler, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. He told the New York Times that the crash was a “tragic accident,” and that Koop “ran in front of her car, and that she was not at fault.”
The crash, he told the Times, was unrelated to the federal corruption indictment.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Sen. Menendez said: “Obviously, we think of the family.”
Arslanian Menendez, 56, is described in the federal indictment as acting as a go-between for Menendez and the three co-indicted businessmen, who were her friends before she began dating Menendez. Prosecutors say she also was a conduit between the senator and international officials.
Arslanian Menendez was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents, and grew up in New York after her family fled during the Lebanese civil war. She has a master’s degree in French from New York University and raised two children in Bergen County. She started an international consulting firm in 2019.
She has been married to Menendez since 2020. The pair met in an IHOP in 2018, and the senator proposed to Arslanian Menendez with a song in front of the Taj Mahal in 2019.
In addition to the Mercedes-Benz convertible, the indictment alleges she received gold bars, mortgage payments and consultant fees for organizing meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials.
In exchange for the alleged bribes, prosecutors charged in a vast 39-page indictment that Menendez wielded his political influence to favor local businessmen and advance Egyptian interests.
Menendez has balked at the quid-pro-quo allegations against him, insisting he had no part in any wrongdoing. He and his wife have each pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
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shes a lier. he didnt jump on to the car. nobody is that stupid except demorats.