House Democrat Henry Cuellar Charged With Taking Foreign Bribes

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Published 2024-05-06
House Democrat Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted for allegedly accepting approximately $600,000 in foreign bribes.

Cuellar denied the charge. He and his wife, Imelda, made their initial court appearance Friday before a federal judge in Houston, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the indictment was unsealed.

They are charged with accepting bribes from an oil and gas company owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City, according to the department.

“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 department said.

In exchange, Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence US policy in favor of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet state in the South Caucacus region which borders the Caspian Sea. He also allegedly agreed to help the Mexican banking conglomerate by pressuring US officials on money-laundering enforcement and seeking to change US money-laundering laws.

Read more: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-03/justice…

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