Consultant Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in an important swing district, and his spouse have been charged with collaborating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican financial institution, in accordance with a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.
The accusations towards Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his spouse Imelda, 67, middle on allegations of bribery and cash laundering in reference to their efforts on behalf of an oil and fuel firm owned by Azerbaijan’s leaders in addition to an unnamed financial institution based mostly in Mexico Metropolis, in accordance with the 54-page criticism.
Mr. Cuellar, a Laredo native first elected in 2004, can also be accused of performing as an agent of a overseas entity whereas a U.S. authorities official — by delivering a speech favoring Azerbaijan in Congress and inserting provisions into assist payments to learn those that have 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 trade, which has been accused of predatory lending practices towards the poor. He additionally tried to weaken cash laundering legal guidelines that affected Mexico’s banking sector, in accordance with prosecutors.
Mr. Cuellar “agreed to affect legislative exercise and to advise and stress high-ranking U.S. govt department officers relating to measures helpful to the financial institution,” they mentioned.
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 an announcement vehemently denying wrongdoing.
Consultant Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority chief, mentioned Mr. Cuellar would take depart from his submit 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 mentioned he was “entitled to his day in courtroom.”
The long-rumored fees come at a precarious second for an more and more empowered Democratic minority within the Home. It forged instantaneous doubt on the get together’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 get together within the chamber and an occasional critic of the Biden administration. However he’s a dependable Democratic vote on most points.
The legal criticism echoes the indictment introduced towards Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who was charged with accepting bribes on behalf of Egyptian companies final yr.
Funds to Mr. Cuellar and his spouse, comprised of 2014 to 2021, have been laundered by way of “sham consulting contracts” and shell firms owned by Ms. Cuellar, who carried out “little to no professional work” underneath the contracts, attorneys with the Justice Division’s legal division wrote. Two of the couple’s grownup youngsters are partial homeowners 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 towards 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 present on the ground of the Home, in accordance with 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 have been coming into right into a sequence of corrupt offers with a financial institution in Mexico, prosecutors mentioned. In March 2015, the congressman expressed issues the association can be found and requested a financial institution official to create a intermediary to “disguise” funds, they mentioned.
“We have to discover one other scheme,” Mr. Cuellar informed the official, in accordance with the indictment.
In an announcement beforehand, Mr. Cuellar maintained his innocence and mentioned he 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 mentioned. “All the pieces I’ve executed in Congress has been to serve the individuals of South Texas.”
“Earlier than I took any motion,” he added, “I proactively sought authorized recommendation from the Home Ethics Committee, who gave me a couple of written opinion, together with a further opinion from a nationwide regulation agency.”
Mr. Cuellar mentioned he tried to fulfill 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 house in 2022, however he gained an in depth major 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 middle of a number of important scandals which have touched on influence-peddling, corruption and election rigging.
It has maintained a strong lobbying presence in the US, and has aggressively courted members of Congress in an effort to win help 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 by way of U.S. intermediaries to pay bills for a junket to Baku, the nation’s capital, for 10 members of Congress and 32 workers members, in accordance with the Home ethics committee.
Mr. Cuellar didn’t attend. However a number of different Texas legislators from each events did — and likewise took house a lavish presents that included a crystal tea set and hand-woven rug.
Prosecutors mentioned that funds to Ms. Cuellar’s shell firms, within the type of retainers price $30,000 to $60,000, slowed after the general public disclosure of the Baku journey in 2015.
