Two former associates of Rep. Henry Cuellar agree to plea deal in bribery case
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Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas speaks during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security hearing on the “Fiscal Year 2025 Request for the Department of Homeland Security” at the Rayburn Building on Wednesday, April 10 2024.
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Rep. Henry Cuellar’s former campaign manager and another political operative have agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes and are cooperating with the Justice Department’s case against the Texas Democrat, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
Mina Colin Strother, Cuellar’s former campaign manager and former chief of staff, and Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, a San Antonio political consultant and businessman, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in March.
Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted last week on suspicion of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities – a Mexico City-based bank and an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan.
Both the congressman and his wife have pleaded not guilty. Cuellar has publicly maintained his innocence, saying in a statement last week that “both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I did in Congress was to serve the people of South Texas.”
According to court documents, Rendon and Cuellar masterminded the bribery scheme in 2015 after learning that the Mexican bank needed help doing business in the United States. Rendon signed a fake “consulting agreement” with the bank for $15,000 a month, prosecutors say.
Most of the money ended up being sent to the Cuellars, prosecutors allege, but Rendon didn’t think it was a good idea to send money directly to Imelda.
Cuellar then suggested recruiting Strother as a go-between, prosecutors say. The alleged conspiracy evolved into an agreement in which Rendon would send $11,000 a month to Strother, who in turn would send $10,000 to a company owned by Imelda Cuellar, according to court documents.
From March 2016 to February 2018, Strother transferred nearly $215,000 to Cuellar’s wife, according to court documents.
The Cuellars are not mentioned in Strother and Rendon’s plea agreements, but both case numbers are listed as cases related to Cuellar’s in court records. The specific details presented in the plea agreements also exactly match the details of the charge against Cuellar.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for Rendon and Strother for comment, as well as an attorney for Cuellar.
