In 2013, U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife took a seemingly routine trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan, funded by an obscure Houston-based nonprofit.
What followed, federal prosecutors now allege, was a years-long scheme involving foreign influence, money laundering, and one of the most serious indictments ever brought against a sitting member of Congress.
According to a federal indictment unsealed last week, Cuellar and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, SOCAR, and Mexico’s Banco Azteca.
Prosecutors allege that Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, Texas, used his office to advance the interests of these entities in exchange for payments disguised as consulting fees to shell companies owned by his wife.
The indictment accuses Cuellar of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government—a rare charge previously brought against Sen. Bob Menendez in 2023 for working on behalf of Egypt.
The Cuellars allegedly funneled money through front companies, spent it on luxury items such as a $12,000 gown and restaurant bills, and concealed the transactions through intermediaries.
One of those intermediaries, Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, a longtime associate of Cuellar, has already pleaded guilty to money laundering. So has Colin Strother, Cuellar’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, who prosecutors say funneled monthly payments to Cuellar’s wife.
Prosecutors claim the payments began in 2014, shortly after Cuellar’s trip to Azerbaijan. In text messages and emails, Cuellar allegedly communicated directly with Elin Suleymanov, then Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the U.S., discussing contracts, payments, and legislation favorable to the country.
WATCH: The Patriot Perspective interviews Jay Furman, Henry Cuellar’s COMPETITOR in the 2024 election, as he EXPOSES the CLEAR ELECTION FRAUD that occurred AGAINST him!
One “consulting contract” paid $20,000 a month through 2019 to Cuellar’s wife’s companies, though prosecutors say she performed “little or no legitimate work.”
Cuellar, who has long styled himself as a champion of U.S.-Mexico relations and border trade, also allegedly pushed policies favorable to Banco Azteca, a Mexican bank.
The indictment describes a separate deal in which the bank agreed to pay Cuellar’s wife $12,000 a month, plus bonuses of up to $500,000, to help them navigate U.S. regulations.
Cuellar is accused of using his office to soften anti-money laundering policies and provide insider updates to bank executives, even texting them for input on federal legislation.
To disguise the schemes, Cuellar reportedly used middlemen and added layers of separation. He allegedly told Rendon to pay off a Mexican official who helped broker the bank deal.
At one point, Rendon paid the official up to $9,000 in cash stored at a Mexican law firm. When the deals drew attention in 2022, the FBI raided Cuellar’s home in Laredo.
Cuellar has pleaded not guilty and issued a defiant statement claiming the indictment is politically motivated. His lawyer dismissed the charges as “fiction,” while Cuellar insisted his actions were “consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues.”
Among those named in the filings are top figures in the Azerbaijani government, executives from Banco Azteca, and even Cuellar’s own adult child, whom the congressman allegedly tried to set up with a similar arrangement.
The payments were routed through shell companies, U.S. affiliates, and even a media subsidiary of the Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas, which owns Banco Azteca and TV Azteca.
So far, Democrats in Congress have withheld judgment. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Cuellar a “valued Member” entitled to the presumption of innocence. Cuellar has stepped down from his subcommittee leadership post, as required by caucus rules.
As the case moves forward, it could become one of the most consequential corruption trials involving a sitting member of Congress in decades. It raises troubling questions about foreign influence, congressional travel, and the ease with which foreign governments may allegedly buy access to American power.
If convicted, Cuellar faces the collapse of a decades-long political career—and the possibility of prison. But the deeper impact may be what this case reveals about the vulnerabilities within the U.S. political system, and how easily those vulnerabilities can be exploited.
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