As tensions flared over disputed territory within the Caucasus area in the summertime of 2020, Azerbaijan’s squadron of high-priced Washington lobbyists scrambled to pin the blame on neighboring Armenia and spotlight its connections to Russia.
Unbeknown to members of Congress, Azerbaijan had an inside man who was working carefully with the Azerbaijani ambassador to Washington on the time on a parallel line of assault, in response to textual content messages launched by federal prosecutors.
Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat now charged with accepting bribes and performing as a overseas agent in a yearslong scheme, indicated in a textual content that he deliberate a legislative maneuver to attempt to strip funding from Armenia as a result of it hosted Russian navy bases.
Azerbaijan’s ambassador responded enthusiastically.
“Your amendment is more timely than ever,” the ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, wrote to Mr. Cuellar. “It is all about Russian presence there,” added Mr. Suleymanov, who referred to the congressman as “Boss.”
Mr. Cuellar’s legislative gambit didn’t go far. But by the point of the textual content alternate, his household had accepted a minimum of $360,000 from Azerbaijani government-controlled firms since December 2014, in response to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.
The 54-page indictment highlights the significance of U.S. policymaking to overseas pursuits, and the lengths to which they go to attempt to form it to their benefit, however excessive dangers and typically questionable outcomes.
The indictment accuses Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his spouse, Imelda, 67, of accepting bribes, cash laundering and conspiring to violate overseas lobbying legal guidelines in reference to efforts on behalf of the Azerbaijani authorities and a Mexico City financial institution that paid them a minimum of $238,390.
The Cuellars pleaded not responsible on Friday, and had been launched after every paid a bond of $100,000. In a press release earlier than the indictment, Mr. Cuellar declared his innocence and advised that the House Ethics Committee had cleared his monetary exercise. The Azerbaijani Embassy didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The fees in opposition to the couple counsel that the Justice Department is increasing its efforts to clamp down on overseas affect campaigns, regardless of latest high-profile setbacks. Juries and judges have rejected cases associated to unregistered overseas lobbying by political figures with shut ties to former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump.
The indictment is the second in latest months to cost a sitting member of Congress with violating a prohibition on lawmakers serving as foreign agents. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and his spouse obtained a collection of fees beginning in October accusing them of accepting lots of of hundreds of {dollars} in bribes, together with gold bars, to assist the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Mr. Menendez and his spouse have pleaded not responsible.
Beyond the funds Mr. Menendez and Mr. Cuellar are accused of receiving, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Qatar have been heavy spenders on conventional Washington lobbying to keep up the circulation of United States assist and to win assist in disputes with neighbors.
From 2015 to the tip of final 12 months, Egypt spent $14.3 million on lobbying and Qatar spent practically $85.9 million, in response to analyses by the nonpartisan web site OpenSecrets of disclosures to the Justice Department below the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. The disclosures don’t embrace donations to suppose tanks and different expenditures that rich overseas governments use to attempt to generate good will.
Azerbaijan spent practically $9.2 million on lobbying in that point, in response to FARA filings. Arms of the federal government retained about 20 corporations throughout that point, together with ones led by former Gov. Haley Barbour, Republican of Mississippi, and former Representative Bob Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The lobbying efforts additionally concerned corporations run by Democrats, resembling the previous Biden adviser Larry Rasky, who died in 2020, and the fund-raiser Vincent A. Roberti.
Azerbaijan’s targets included profitable assist for the reintegration of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory within the Lesser Caucasus, which has been below dispute with Armenia for many years. (Azerbaijan seized full management of the territory in September.) Azerbaijan additionally wished Congress to repeal a ban on U.S. assist imposed in 1992 throughout the first Nagorno-Karabakh warfare.
While the United States has frequently issued waivers to the ban since 2001, the Azerbaijanis take into account the sturdiness of the underlying ban “kind of an insult and injustice,” stated Richard Kauzlarich, who served as ambassador to Azerbaijan throughout the Clinton administration.
“I haven’t seen signs of the return on the investment as far as issues that are important to Azerbaijan in terms of their lobbying efforts,” Mr. Kauzlarich stated. He attributed that partly to continued considerations about human rights abuses by the Azerbaijani authorities and partly to the shortage of an organized, activated diaspora like that which has lobbied for Armenian causes.
“No amount of money is going to be able to counter the number of voters in California and Massachusetts and elsewhere where Armenian Americans live, are active and vote,” he stated.
While politicians in Europe have been accused of accepting gifts and bribes from Azerbaijani and Qatari officers, the prosecutors’ claims of funds to Mr. Menendez and Mr. Cueller add a brand new wrinkle on the earth of subterranean affect campaigns in Washington.
The lawmakers had been in prime positions to assist overseas governments. Mr. Menendez was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whereas Mr. Cuellar served on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the price range of the State Department.
After their respective indictments, Mr. Menendez stepped down from his chairmanship, and Mr. Cuellar from his place as the highest Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Mr. Menendez’s trial is scheduled to start this month. Both have vowed to stay in workplace as they contest the fees, and Mr. Cuellar has stated he intends to proceed his re-election marketing campaign.
The Azerbaijanis’ courtship of Mr. Cuellar got here as oil pursuits within the nation, together with the state-owned firm that prosecutors say funded the funds to the Cuellars, maintained a presence in Texas.
Mr. Cuellar and his spouse, together with different Texas lawmakers, had been handled to journeys to Azerbaijan in 2013. He obtained briefings from high-level authorities officers and attended a dinner with executives from the state-owned oil firm, in response to prosecutors. After Mr. Cuellar returned, he was recruited by Azerbaijani officers, who started funneling funds to a pair of consulting corporations his wife created known as IRC Business Solutions and Global Gold Group, in response to prosecutors and Texas companies filings.
The Cuellars used the cash to repay money owed, fund residing bills and make purchases together with a $12,000 customized robe and a $7,000 down cost for a brand new automotive, prosecutors say.
The indictment claims that Imelda Cuellar “performed little or no legitimate work in exchange for the payments.” Instead, “in exchange for the bribe payments, Henry Cuellar agreed to perform official acts and acts in violation of his official duties benefiting Azerbaijan and to be and act as an agent of the government of Azerbaijan.”
Among the companies prosecutors say Mr. Cuellar carried out on the behest of the Azerbaijanis was urgent the Obama administration to take a tougher line in opposition to Armenia, making an attempt to insert language favorable to Azerbaijan into laws and committee stories and having members of his employees urge the State Department to resume a passport for the daughter of Mr. Suleymanov.
Mr. Cuellar’s efforts on behalf of Azerbaijan largely appear to have had minimal impression. He withdrew the modification to strip funding from Armenia after objections from an Armenian diaspora group.
“It was going to be ruled out of order so I withdrew but they are taking credit ha ha,” Mr. Cuellar texted Mr. Suleymanov.
The ambassador responded “they take credit for everything!”
After the indictment of Mr. Cuellar was unsealed, the group, Armenian Assembly of America, known as for “a broader investigation in relation to these charges and who else may be tied to Azerbaijan’s corrupt modes of operation.”
