A Texas sheriff has been charged with fraud two months after President Donald Trump pardoned his brother, Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar – although the president later accused him of being disloyal.
Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr., 67, from Laredo, was accused by federal prosecutors of defrauding his office by misappropriating funds to run a for-profit disinfecting business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last month, Cuellar’s brother and his brother’s wife, Imelda Cuellar, were pardoned by Trump in a federal bribery case. Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month that the Biden administration used “political weaponization” on the Cuellars “because they didn’t agree with his policies on the Southern Border.”
Martin Cuellar, along with his assistant chief, Alejandro Gutierrez, 47, and a former assistant chief, Ricardo Rodriguez, 65, opened Disinfect Pro Master in April 2020 and used employees from the sheriff’s office to run the company’s day-to-day operations both on and off the clock with the county, prosecutors alleged.
They entered into contracts with local businesses and restaurants, securing a $500,000 job to clean schools for the local district, according to prosecutors. Despite the big payout, the cleaning business had minimal overhead costs because it allegedly used county employees and supplies.
Cuellar, Gutierrez and Rodriguez, who were all charged, each received about $175,000 from the business that operated for more than two years, prosecutors said. Cuellar allegedly used $71,000 of his proceeds to buy a 10-acre property, the Associated Press reported.
A federal grand jury indicted Cuellar on three counts of defrauding a local government that receives federal funds, one count of conspiracy and one count of making a financial transaction involving criminally derived property in November. The indictment was unsealed Thursday when Cuellar made his first court appearance.
Cuellar has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Eric Reed, said, per the AP, that the charges against his client are “based on some untrue assumptions and narratives that have been fueled perhaps by politics and local rivalries.”
If convicted, Cuellar and Gutierrez both face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Cuellar also could get an extra 10 years in prison and additional fines for his money laundering charge.
Gutierrez has also pleaded not guilty in the case, and both he and Cuellar were released on bond, the Laredo Morning Times reported. His attorney, Adam Cortez, said of his client, “The evidence is that he did not knowingly do the allegations,” per the local outlet.
Rodriguez already pleaded guilty and is on bond pending his sentencing hearing in March.
Henry and Imelda Cuellar had been accused of accepting $600,000 in bribes from an energy company owned and controlled by the Azerbaijani government and a bank in Mexico. Henry Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent, according to the AP.
Trump later said Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat, was disloyal and “essentially destroyed his life even with the Pardon given” by not switching parties when running for re-election this year.
