Imelda Rios Cuellar

Imelda Rios Cuellar, wife of former Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo), was indicted alongside her husband in May 2024 in a scheme in which the pair allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. In exchange, Henry Cuellar used his position in Congress to take official actions favorable to the interests of those foreign principals. Imelda Cuellar's role was to receive and launder the bribe payments: the funds were routed through sham consulting contracts, passing through front companies and middlemen before landing in shell companies that she owned and controlled. She faced charges of conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and five counts of money laundering. The couple were pardoned before the case went to trial.