EGN NEWS DESK
Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in an important swing district, and his spouse had been charged with collaborating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican financial institution, in keeping with a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.
The accusations in opposition to 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 gasoline firm owned by Azerbaijan’s leaders in addition to an unnamed financial institution based mostly in Mexico City, in keeping with 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 help payments to profit those that had been paying bribes to his household.
The authorities 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, in keeping with prosecutors.
Mr. Cuellar “agreed to affect legislative exercise and to advise and strain high-ranking U.S. government department officers relating to measures useful to the financial institution,” they stated.
Many of Mr. Cuellar’s actions, taken at face worth, seemed to be reputable policymaking actions, albeit favoring foreign-owned companies. But 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 short 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.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority chief, stated Mr. Cuellar would take go away from his put up as the highest Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee whereas he fights the costs.
Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Jeffries, described Mr. Cuellar as “a valued member of the House Democratic Caucus,” and stated 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 House. It solid instantaneous doubt on the party’s probabilities of holding a district, which runs alongside the border with Mexico, that has important political and symbolic significance.
Mr. Cuellar is among the extra conservative Democrats within the House, the one anti-abortion member of his party within the chamber and an occasional critic of the Biden administration. But he’s a dependable Democratic vote on most points.
The felony grievance echoes the indictment introduced in opposition to Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who was charged with accepting bribes on behalf of Egyptian companies final 12 months.
Payments to Mr. Cuellar and his spouse, comprised of 2014 to 2021, had been laundered via “sham consulting contracts” and shell firms owned by Ms. Cuellar, who carried out “little to no reputable work” underneath the contracts, legal professionals with the Justice Department’s felony 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 degree 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 offer on the ground of the House, in keeping with the indictment. It praised the nation’s effort to fight terrorism.
A 12 months later, Mr. Cuellar texted the identical diplomat to say he had launched laws that favored Azerbaijan.
“You are the perfect El Jefe!” the diplomat replied.
Around the identical time, Henry and Imelda Cuellar had been coming 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 want to search out one other scheme,” Mr. Cuellar instructed the official, in keeping with 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 wish to be clear that each my spouse and I are harmless of those allegations,” Mr. Cuellar stated. “Everything I’ve finished in Congress has been to serve the folks of South Texas.”
“Before I took any motion,” he added, “I proactively sought authorized recommendation from the House 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 house in 2022, showing to dim his prospects for re-election, however he gained an in depth main victory anyway over a extra progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros. The main divided outstanding Democrats; Representative 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 sturdy lobbying presence within the United States, 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 Company 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, in keeping with the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Mr. Cuellar didn’t attend. But a number of different Texas legislators from each events did — and in addition took house lavish presents that included a crystal tea set and hand-woven rug.
Prosecutors stated that funds to Ms. Cuellar’s shell firms, within the type of retainers value $30,000 to $60,000, slowed after the general public disclosure of the Baku journey in 2015.
