US lawmaker Cuellar, wife indicted on bribery charges

WASHINGTON: U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife were indicted for allegedly accepting close to $600,000 in bribes in two schemes meant to benefit an Azerbaijani state-owned energy company and an unnamed bank based in Mexico, court papers showed.

The federal indictment, returned by a grand jury in Texas on Tuesday and unsealed on Friday, said the bribes were laundered through sham consulting contracts into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, the Democratic congressman’s wife, from December 2014 through at least November 2021.

In exchange, it says Henry Cuellar sought to use his public position to influence U.S. foreign policy in Azerbaijan’s favor and to pressure U.S. government officials to help the Mexican bank lobby against anti-money laundering enforcement policies and payday lending regulations that threatened its business.