Henry Cuellar
Portrait: U.S. Congress Bioguide (public domain — federal government work)
⚠️ All Corruption Flags (4)
On May 3, 2024, Rep. Cuellar and his wife Imelda Cuellar were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on 14 counts including bribery of a federal official, conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering, and acting as a foreign agent in violation of FARA. Prosecutors alleged the Cuellars accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from December 2014 through November 2021 from an oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Azerbaijan and from a bank headquartered in Mexico City.
DOJ alleged that, in exchange for the Azerbaijani bribes, Cuellar agreed to insert pro-Azerbaijan language into defense authorization and government spending bills and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the House floor. In exchange for the Mexican bribes, he allegedly agreed to influence U.S. Executive Branch officials on measures benefiting the bank.
Prosecutors alleged the bribe payments were laundered through sham consulting contracts via front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who allegedly performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts.
On December 3, 2025, President Donald Trump issued Cuellar and his wife a full and unconditional pardon. The pardon does not erase the underlying indictment or the prosecutorial findings; it ends the criminal case.