Consultant Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in an important swing district, and his spouse had been charged with taking part in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican financial institution, based on a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.
The accusations in opposition to Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his spouse Imelda, 67, heart on allegations of bribery and cash laundering in reference to their efforts on behalf of an oil and gasoline firm owned by Azerbaijan’s leaders in addition to an unnamed financial institution primarily based in Mexico Metropolis, based on the 54-page grievance.
Mr. Cuellar, a Laredo native first elected in 2004, can be accused of performing as an agent of a international entity whereas a U.S. authorities official — by delivering a speech favoring Azerbaijan in Congress and inserting provisions into assist payments to profit those that had been paying bribes to his household.
The federal government claimed that Mr. Cuellar, who as soon as served as Texas secretary of state, was paid to again laws supposed to stymie regulation of the payday mortgage business, which has been accused of predatory lending practices in opposition to the poor. He additionally tried to weaken cash laundering legal guidelines that affected Mexico’s banking sector, based on prosecutors.
Mr. Cuellar “agreed to affect legislative exercise and to advise and strain high-ranking U.S. government department officers relating to measures helpful to the financial institution,” they stated.
A lot of Mr. Cuellar’s actions, taken at face worth, seemed to be authentic policymaking actions, albeit favoring foreign-owned companies. However the indictment revealed a hidden narrative, and prosecutors compiled tables of secret funds that solid these actions as an unlawful and mercenary scheme.
The couple was launched on Friday after every of them paid a bond of $100,000 after a quick look earlier than a federal Justice of the Peace in Houston. Hours earlier than the indictment was unsealed, Mr. Cuellar issued a press release vehemently denying wrongdoing.
Consultant Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority chief, stated Mr. Cuellar would take depart from his put up as the highest Democrat on the Homeland Safety Appropriations Subcommittee whereas he fights the fees.
Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Jeffries, described Mr. Cuellar as “a valued member of the Home Democratic Caucus,” and stated he was “entitled to his day in court docket.”
The long-rumored fees come at a precarious second for an more and more empowered Democratic minority within the Home. It solid prompt doubt on the social gathering’s probabilities of holding a district, which runs alongside the border with Mexico, that has important political and symbolic significance.
Mr. Cuellar is likely one of the extra conservative Democrats within the Home, the one anti-abortion member of his social gathering within the chamber and an occasional critic of the Biden administration. However he’s a dependable Democratic vote on most points.
The legal grievance echoes the indictment introduced final yr in opposition to Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. He and his spouse had been charged with accepting bribes on behalf of Egyptian companies.
Funds to Mr. Cuellar and his spouse, produced from 2014 to 2021, had been laundered via “sham consulting contracts” and shell corporations owned by Ms. Cuellar, who carried out “little to no authentic work” beneath the contracts, attorneys with the Justice Division’s legal division wrote. Two of the couple’s grownup youngsters are partial house owners of the companies however weren’t charged.
Prosecutors disclosed an in depth stock of interactions between Mr. Cuellar and Azerbaijani officers that indicated an in depth stage of cooperation, together with proof that he pressured officers within the Obama administration to take a tougher line in opposition to Armenia.
In January 2015 — after his spouse had already been paid $120,000 by the oil firm — the congressman emailed an unnamed diplomat from Azerbaijan the draft of a speech he deliberate to provide on the ground of the Home, based on the indictment. It praised the nation’s effort to fight terrorism.
A yr later, Mr. Cuellar texted the identical diplomat to say he had launched laws that favored Azerbaijan.
“You’re the finest El Jefe!” the diplomat replied.
Across the identical time, Henry and Imelda Cuellar had been getting into right into a collection of corrupt offers with a financial institution in Mexico, prosecutors stated. In March 2015, the congressman expressed issues the association could be found and requested a financial institution official to create a intermediary to “disguise” funds, they stated.
“We have to discover one other scheme,” Mr. Cuellar advised the official, based on the indictment.
In a press release beforehand, Mr. Cuellar maintained his innocence and stated he had cleared his spouse’s work with the Ethics Committee.
“I need to be clear that each my spouse and I are harmless of those allegations,” Mr. Cuellar stated. “Every little thing I’ve completed in Congress has been to serve the folks of South Texas.”
“Earlier than I took any motion,” he added, “I proactively sought authorized recommendation from the Home Ethics Committee, who gave me multiple written opinion, together with an extra opinion from a nationwide legislation agency.”
Mr. Cuellar stated he tried to satisfy with federal prosecutors in Washington to elucidate his facet of the story, however they declined the assembly.
The F.B.I. searched Mr. Cuellar’s Laredo dwelling in 2022, showing to dim his prospects for re-election, however he received an in depth main victory anyway over a extra progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros. The first divided distinguished Democrats; Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York progressive, backed Ms. Cisneros, however senior members of management, together with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, campaigned for Mr. Cuellar.
On Friday, he vowed to proceed his re-election marketing campaign.
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic within the Caucuses area, has been on the heart of a number of important scandals which have touched on influence-peddling, corruption and election rigging.
It has maintained a sturdy lobbying presence in america, and has aggressively courted members of Congress in an effort to win assist for its battle with Armenia over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh area.
In 2013, the State Oil Firm of the Azerbaijan Republic, which is managed by the nation’s leaders, funneled $750,000 via U.S. intermediaries to pay bills for a junket to Baku, the nation’s capital, for 10 members of Congress and 32 workers members, based on the Workplace of Congressional Ethics.
Mr. Cuellar didn’t attend. However a number of different Texas legislators from each events did — and in addition took dwelling lavish items that included a crystal tea set and hand-woven rug.
Prosecutors stated that funds to Ms. Cuellar’s shell corporations, within the type of retainers price $30,000 to $60,000, slowed after the general public disclosure of the Baku journey in 2015.
