Federal Judge sentenced Texas’ border county commissioner to twenty years imprisonment for his involvement in multi-million dollar bribery schemes. An ex-border city commissioner who was a witness to the scheme received a lesser sentence.
Micaela Alvarez, U.S. District Judge, sentenced Arturo, a former Hidalgo County commissioner. “A.C.” Cuellar, 69, to 20 years in prison and ordered him to pay $4.1 million in restitution, information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas revealed. Alvarez sentenced John Cuellar (60) to three years imprisonment and Ricardo Quintanilla (57), to 16 years, six months, respectively, during the hearing.
John Cuellar pleaded guilty to the charges and testified against his cousin A.C. and Quintanilla. A.C. Cuellar was convicted, 61, on separate charges of fraud, bribery and money laundering. Quintanilla was also found guilty in the same trial.
According to authorities, the conspiracy for bribery/contract rigging began in March 2008 and continued through 2015.
Prosecutors say that A.C. Cuellar & Quintanilla bribed Weslaco Commissioners John Cuellar & Gerardo “Gerry”Tafolla tries to persuade them to vote in favour of specific companies to be involved in various projects within Weslaco. These contracts included the rehabilitation of Weslaco’s water treatment plant which was worth more than $38 million.
Dave Hendricks The Progress TimesAccording to reports, A.C. Cuellar gave $405,000 to John his cousin in return for influence and votes to help move over $50,000,000 in engineering contracts towards certain companies. Federal prosecutors allege that A.C. attempted to claim the bribe as legal expenses.
“Weslaco was warned for years to upgrade its water infrastructure in order to provide potable water,”Alamdar S. Hamdani was the U.S. attorney for Southern District of Texas in a prepared declaration. “The defendants used this opportunity to participate in a multi-million dollar scheme that ultimately saddled residents with debt and bribery costs for their drinking water system. We hope the message in today’s sentencings will deter others from committing such crimes and provide some closure to the citizens of Weslaco.”
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist for Breitbart. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. Contact him at [email protected].
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