According to information from the Federal Election Commission ( FEC ), a Democrat congressman on the verge of bribery used roughly half of the funds for his 2024 campaign to pay legal fees.
Out of the nearly$ 1.6 million of campaign funds that Rep. Henry Cuellar ( D- TX ) spent, he reportedly spent around$ 784, 900 on legal services, according to an analysis of FEC records, Open Secrets reported.
After allegedly accepting practically$ 600,000 in money from two foreign companies, Cuellar and his partner, Imelda Rios Cuellar, were charged with corruption at the beginning of May.
According to FEC data, Cuellar apparently represented by Clifford Chance LLP, an international law company. The law company was given almost$ 690, 000 in bills, according to FEC records.
Another law firm that appears in the FEC information and received more than$ 46,900 is Perkins Coie LLP. Perkins Coie LLP is a law firm that specializes in representing” organizations, trade organizations, individuals, individuals, parties, social boards” and activists, according to the law firm’s website.
The Cuellar plan likewise provided funding to another law firm, Mololamken LLP.
On May 3, the Department of Justice ( DOJ) announced that Cuellar and his wife had been charged after accepting$ 600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani bank with a headquarter in Mexico City between December 2014 and November 2021.
In the speech, the DOJ explained:
Using a number of top companies and middlemen, the reward payments reportedly were laundered into barrel companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who allegedly did little to no legitimate function under the contracts, in accordance with sham consulting agreements.
Two years after agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) arrived at the couple’s home and served them with a search warrant, the DOJ’s indictment of the Cuellars was made.
In January 2022, FBI agents no merely searched Cuellar’s house, but searched another tower where his plan was headquartered.
A lawyer for Cuellar stated in April 2022, weeks after the FBI’s research, that Cuellar had not been the goal of the FBI’s research.
