ByWatch Eyewitness News and ABC13 originals around the clockFederal investigators have secured a third guilty plea in connection with an investigation into U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas on charges that he accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico.
One of Cuellar's top former aides, Colin Strother, and a Texas political and business consultant, Florencia Roden, struck plea deals in March on felony money laundering charges related to the Mexican bank. Akhoundova's plea agreement described her as an "active member of the Texas Azerbaijani-American community." It said she worked from 2014-2017 as director of a Texas affiliate of an Azerbaijan energy company, where she transmitted false consulting invoices and helped facilitate payments she thought were "in the interests" of the oil company and the Azerbaijan government.
According to the indictments against the Cuellars, the Azerbaijan energy company initially made the payments through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple's children. That company received payments of $25,000 per month under a "sham contract," purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services.