Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas was indicted by The Department of Justice on conspiracy and bribery charges on Friday. He denies the allegations.
Cueller and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, allegedly accepted roughly $600,000 in bribe money from an Azerbaijan-based energy company and a bank in Mexico. According to the indictment, Cueller agreed to use his position to favor positive U.S. foreign policies for Azerbaijan and agreed to push for policies that would positively influence the 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 Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
“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,” DOJ continued. “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.”
Cueller released a statement denying the charges for both himself and his wife.
“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” Cueller wrote in a statement, per Fox News. “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of Texas.”
“Imelda and I have been married 32 years. On top of being an amazing wife and mother, she’s an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees. 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,” he wrote.
The 68-year-old congressman and his wife are both charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official, two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering; and five counts of money laundering, according to the DOJ.
If convicted, they could spend anywhere from a couple years to a couple decades in prison.