Houston woman pleads guilty for third time in Henry Cuellar corruption case

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A third person linked to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s corruption case has pleaded guilty, according to a recently unsealed plea deal, after the South Texas Democrat was accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes -wine from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.

Irada Akhoundova pleaded guilty May 1 to acting illegally as an agent of the Azerbaijani government and a state-owned oil company, a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to the plea agreement reported for first time by the San Antonio Express-News. Akhoundova admitted to facilitating the payment of $60,000 to Imelda Cuellar, the congressman’s wife, who was also indicted last month.

For nearly 20 years, Akhoundova has served as president of the Houston-Baku Sister City Association, a nonprofit that builds ties between the Texas city and Azerbaijan’s capital, according to her LinkedIn profile. The plea agreement describes Akhoundova as an active member of the Azerbaijani-American community in Texas. Court records indicate she was a director of a U.S. subsidiary of a Baku-based company from approximately 2014 to 2017.

Akhoundova is the third publicly known person to plead guilty in the federal investigation into the Texas congressman. Cuellar’s former campaign manager, Colin Strother, and another consultant, Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, pleaded guilty to charges that they helped launder more than $200,000 in bribes through a Mexican bank, according to court records.

Cuellar and his wife were indicted on April 30 for accepting payments from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company. The couple allegedly laundered the payments through fake consulting contracts with shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, according to the indictment.

In exchange, the Laredo congressman reportedly pushed U.S. policy favoring Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet country that borders Iran and Russia on the Caspian Sea. Cuellar reportedly helped add language to defense spending legislation to prioritize ties with regional countries, including Azerbaijan.

Cuellar also allegedly took money from a Mexican retail bank, Banco Azteca, and influenced members of the executive branch to circumvent an anti-money laundering policy that threatened the bank’s interests, according to the indictment.

According to Akhoundova’s plea agreement, Imelda Cuellar was acting as the owner of a consulting company when she allegedly submitted falsified invoices to a Texas-based subsidiary of an Azerbaijani company run by Akhoundova. Cuellar received the payment in December 2014, although he did not perform any work for Akhoundova’s company.

“Akhunova believed that the disbursement of the $60,000 was in the interests of Oil Company 1 and the government of Azerbaijan,” the plea agreement states, referring to the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan.

The plea agreement also outlines other actions Akhoundova took on behalf of the Azerbaijani government, including establishing a U.S.-based company.

In 2020, Akhundova received emails from an Azerbaijani government agency asking her to organize a campaign in the United States to influence American public opinion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan was engaged in a long-running border conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave composed largely of ethnic Armenians, until Azerbaijan forcibly regained control of the territory last year. The conflict has been a major obstacle to peace in the region since the fall of the Soviet Union, with governments in Europe, the United States and Russia grappling with the issues for decades.

Akhoundova agreed to testify in any legal proceeding, including before a grand jury, and provide documents related to the federal government’s investigation of Cuellar, according to the plea agreement. She faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 – the maximum penalty for the offense to which she pleaded guilty.

The Cuellars have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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