{"id":2245554,"date":"2024-05-15T21:35:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T01:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/3-people-plead-guilty-in-federal-corruption-case-against-democrat-henry-cuellar\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T21:37:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T01:37:38","slug":"3-people-plead-guilty-in-federal-corruption-case-against-democrat-henry-cuellar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/3-people-plead-guilty-in-federal-corruption-case-against-democrat-henry-cuellar\/","title":{"rendered":"Three individuals admit guilt in federal corruption case involving Democrat Henry Cuellar"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F3-people-plead-guilty-in-federal-corruption-case-against-democrat-henry-cuellar%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2245554&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Three individuals admitted guilt in a federal corruption case involving Rep. Henry\u200b Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, accused\u2064 of accepting \u2064bribes from \u200cforeign entities. \u2064The couple allegedly engaged in bribery, foreign\u200b influence, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-eyes-rd-bill-to-bolster-competitiveness-with-china\/\" title=\"Senate Eyes R&#038;D Bill to Bolster Competitiveness With China\">money laundering schemes<\/a>, reportedly receiving nearly $600,000 in bribes. Political consultants also faced charges, with \u200bCuellar \u200cdenying claims of financial desperation for bribery motives.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p>Three people have pled guilty in the federal criminal investigation into Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/henry-cuellar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Henry Cuellar<\/a> (D-TX) and his wife allegedly accepting bribes from foreign entities in exchange for taking official actions as an elected official to further the interests of those entities.<\/p>\n<p>The 68-year-old congressman was charged along with his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, with allegedly participating in two schemes involving bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering, the DOJ said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The Cuellars allegedly took nearly $600,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company that is wholly owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank that is headquartered in Mexico city.<\/p>\n<p>Two of Cuellar\u2019s political consultants \u2014 former aide Colin Strother and Florencia Roden \u2014 struck plea deals earlier this year on felony money laundering charges related to the bank in Mexico, The Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cuellar-bribery-investigation-azerbaijan-mexico-832b32f502f4a5606f0f1f6fedfe6db2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. A third person, Irada Akhoundova, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/january-6-rioter-sentenced-to-46-months-in-prison-for-assaulting-an-officer\/\" title=\"January 6 Rioter Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Assaulting an Officer\">pled guilty earlier<\/a> this month to acting as an agent for Azerbaijan without registering under Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times reported that Cuellar was in serious need of cash around the time that he allegedly started accepting bribes as he reported being worth as little as $29,000 in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>A lawyer for Cuellar said that the \u201csuggestion that there is a financial desperation that would create a motive for bribery\u201d was false and that the congressman \u201clives within his means, and like anyone else, his net worth goes up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that he\u2019s had success doesn\u2019t change his roots. He\u2019s never forgotten where he came from,\u201d the lawyer said. \u201cThere was no quid pro quo. His actions in this matter were lawful, transparent and entirely consistent with the actions of many of his colleagues and consistent with his own principles and the interests of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-9096\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1700760801843000&#038;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/bob-menendez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Menendez<\/a> (D-NJ) was indicted on similar criminal charges last fall and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/jury-selection-for-new-jersey-democrat-senator-bob-menendez-corruption-trial-begins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jury selection<\/a> for his trial started this week.<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors have charged Menendez with 16 criminal counts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/05\/13\/bob-menendez-trial-new-jersey-corruption\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">including<\/a> conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-president-trump-gives-pardons-to-73-individuals-and-commutes-another-70-sentences-steve-bannon-is-included\/\" title=\"BREAKING: President Trump Gives Pardons to 73 Individuals and Commutes Another 70 Sentences \u2013 Steve Bannon Is Included\">commit honest services fraud<\/a>, conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, a charge accusing him of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt, obstruction of justice, and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jury-selection-for-new-jersey-democrat-senator-bob-menendez-corruption-trial-begins\/\" title=\"Jury Selection Starts for New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez's Corruption Trial\">related corruption charges<\/a>. The allegations include claims that Menendez was bribed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/democrat-senator-menendez-poised-to-blame-his-wife-for-alleged-crimes-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democrat Senator Menendez Poised To Blame His Wife For Alleged Crimes: Reports<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three individuals have pleaded guilty in the federal probe of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife allegedly accepting bribes from foreign entities. The congressman, aged 68, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, face charges of leveraging official actions for the benefit of these entities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":2245555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1249278460-scaled-e1710289494475.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2245554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1249278460-scaled-e1710289494475.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}