Posted on 05/03/24
| News Source: The Hill
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and his wife were indicted Friday on charges related to accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes and laundering the funds.
The indictment filed by the Justice Department (DOJ) details payments Cuellar allegedly accepted from an oil company owned by the Azerbaijan government and a Mexican bank.
“The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts,” the DOJ wrote in a press release announcing the indictment in the Southern District of Texas.
“In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.”
Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, face a string of charges that could collectively carry over a decade in jail time.
Among the charges are those for acting as an agent of a “foreign principle,” bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud, and various charges for wire fraud.
Henry Cuellar denied he or his wife did anything wrong in a statement issued before the charges were unsealed.
“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas,” he said in a statement through his campaign.
“Before I took any action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.”
He also defended his wife’s professional background, saying “she spent her career working with banking, tax, and consulting. The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard working is both wrong and offensive.”
Henry Cuellar, who is a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, will have to step down from his post as the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-N.Y.) office noted in a statement nodding to House rules.