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The US Justice Department has charged Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife for allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank headquartered in Mexico City.
In exchange for the bribes, the DOJ alleged, Cuellar agreed to use his office to influence US foreign policy to favor Azerbaijan, and influence legislation that could benefit the Mexican bank. Cuellar is a member and former co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.
The lawmaker’s wife, Imelda, faces the same charges.
Cuellar is stepping down as ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee “while this matter is ongoing,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries’ office said.
If convicted on all counts, including bribery of a federal official, money laundering, and wire fraud, the maximum prison sentence for each of the Cuellars is 204 years.
“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” Cuellar said in a statement Friday morning, before the indictment was made public. He said he plans to run for re-election in November.
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The alleged scheme occurred from 2014 through at least November 2021, per the indictment.
The news comes two years after the FBI searched Cuellar’s Laredo home and campaign office in January 2022 as part of a federal investigation into a group of businessmen who have ties to the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan.
Cuellar’s office vowed to cooperate with authorities in 2022, and the lawmaker denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer later said that federal officials told Cuellar he was not the target of the investigation, and the DOJ’s statement on the indictment did not mention the searches.