A Houston -area woman has pleaded guilty in a bribery scheme that allegedly funneled $360,000 in payoffs from the government of Azerbaijan to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, the Express-News has learned. Irada Akhoundova , 67, secretly entered a guilty plea on May 1 to a charge of acting as an agent for Azerbaijan between September 2020 and January 2021 without registering as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act .
Two accused middlemen plead guilty in Henry Cuellar bribery case From a base in Houston, Akhoundova has long been an advocate for establishing trade and cultural relations between her native Azerbaijan and the United States. She is president of the Houston-Baku Sister City Association — Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan — and she has helped diplomats and government officials from that country establish relationships with U.S. lawmakers, according to public records.
Cuellar bribery prosecution might involve classified info Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted by a federal grand jury on May 1 in connection with two alleged bribery schemes, one involving a bank in Mexico, Banco Azteca, the other with alleged payoffs from a state-run oil company in Azerbaijan. The bribes paid by Banco Azteca and the Azerbaijani oil company from 2014-21 totaled nearly $600,000 according to the indictment.
Office Of Congressional Ethics Express-News Banco Azteca State Oil Company Of Azerbaijan Republic Congress Justice Department Ethics Committee Friends Of Azerbaijan Irada Akhoundova Henry Cuellar Cuellars Imelda Cuellar Dena Palermo Louis Anthony Pellegrino III James Bridenstine Democrat Azerbaijan U.S. Houston Sister City Association -- Baku Baku Eurasians Caucusus Mexico Texas Washington Soviet Laredo Caspian Sea Caucasus Turkey Oklahoma Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Agents Registration Act
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