Tag: bribery

Corrupt Democrat Rep. Caught Taking Bribes

In 2013, U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife took a seemingly routine trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan, funded by an obscure Houston-based nonprofit. 

What followed, federal prosecutors now allege, was a years-long scheme involving foreign influence, money laundering, and one of the most serious indictments ever brought against a sitting member of Congress.

According to a federal indictment unsealed last week, Cuellar and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, SOCAR, and Mexico’s Banco Azteca. 

Prosecutors allege that Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, Texas, used his office to advance the interests of these entities in exchange for payments disguised as consulting fees to shell companies owned by his wife. 

The indictment accuses Cuellar of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government—a rare charge previously brought against Sen. Bob Menendez in 2023 for working on behalf of Egypt.

The Cuellars allegedly funneled money through front companies, spent it on luxury items such as a $12,000 gown and restaurant bills, and concealed the transactions through intermediaries. 

One of those intermediaries, Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, a longtime associate of Cuellar, has already pleaded guilty to money laundering. So has Colin Strother, Cuellar’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, who prosecutors say funneled monthly payments to Cuellar’s wife.

Prosecutors claim the payments began in 2014, shortly after Cuellar’s trip to Azerbaijan. In text messages and emails, Cuellar allegedly communicated directly with Elin Suleymanov, then Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the U.S., discussing contracts, payments, and legislation favorable to the country. 

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Prosecutors accuse Smartmatic executive of bribing Venezuelan election official with luxury home

Federal prosecutors have accused Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate of bribing the top Venezuelan election official with a luxury residence in Caracas in exchange for political favors.

Piñate, who was charged with multiple counts of money laundering and bribery related to contracts in the Philippines, according to the Miami Herald, has been accused of transferring the home to election chief Tibisay Lucena Ramírez in order to secure her help in resolving a commercial dispute with the Venezuelan government.

The alleged dispute comes after Smartmatic claimed in 2017 that Nicolás Maduro’s administration committed fraud in the National Constituent Assembly election, which led the company to conclude its business in the country later that year. 

The new revelations occurred in a court filing related to the Philippines’ case on Friday, where prosecutors attempted to show a pattern of allegedly criminal behavior and alleged intent to commit bribery.

Pinate-VenezuelaBribeAllegationDocument.pdf

Piñate was charged in a $1 million bribery scheme in the Philippines for allegedly inflating the prices of voting machines and diverting the excess funds into secret accounts used to pay off Philippine election official Juan Andrés Donato Bautista.

Prosecutors claimed the home was allegedly transferred to Lucena Ramírez through a foreign shell company with the help of an unnamed co-conspirator. The transfer was allegedly completed between April and July 2019, after the company supposedly ended its business in Venezeula. 

Smartmatic denied the accusations in a statement to the Miami Herald, claiming the filing was riddled with “misrepresentations,” including with the timeline. 

“As an example, the government’s citation of an alleged bribe in Venezuela in 2019 is untethered from reality. Smartmatic ceased all operations in Venezuela in August 2017 after blowing the whistle on the government and has never sought to secure business there again,” the company said in an email. “We have always operated lawfully, ethically, and transparently. We stand by our two-decade track record of integrity.”

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Ukraine’s Anti-Graft Agencies Say They Uncovered Major Drone Procurement Bribery Case

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies said on Aug. 2 they had uncovered a large-scale bribery scheme involving the procurement of military drones and electronic warfare equipment.

This came just days after the agencies’ independence was restored following mass protests over government efforts to curb their powers.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said in a statement on Saturday that the alleged plot involved a sitting lawmaker, current and former regional officials, National Guard personnel, and a company executive.

Investigators alleged that those involved had refined a scheme over the past two years to systematically siphon off budget funds allocated by local authorities for defense needs, and to secure “unfair benefits in particularly large quantities.”

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, identified the accused lawmaker as Oleksii Kuznetsov of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party.

Party leader Davyd Arakhamiia later said on Telegram that Kuznetsov’s membership in the parliamentary faction would be suspended while the investigation is underway, and that a disciplinary panel was weighing his expulsion.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Ukrainian parliament’s press office with a request to forward a comment request to Kuznetsov.

In a separate statement, the party said it supported the work of NABU and SAPO, and stressed that responsibility for corrupt acts “must be borne by everyone, regardless of position, status or political affiliation.”

It said the recently passed law restoring the agencies’ independence “created additional guarantees for their work,” for them to act decisively and professionally in combating corruption.

Zelenskyy said in a statement posted on X on Saturday that he had been briefed on the investigation by the heads of NABU and SAPO, confirming that a lawmaker, local officials, and several National Guard servicemembers had been “exposed for bribery.”

“I am grateful to the anti-corruption agencies for their work,” he wrote. “There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork in uncovering it, and ultimately, a fair sentence. It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law passed on Thursday guarantees them all the tools necessary for a real fight against corruption.”

The law he referred to marked a dramatic about-face for his administration.

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Pfizer bribery probe dropped after ex-company lawyer Pam Bondi takes over DOJ in February 2025.

The DOJ dropped its Pfizer bribery probe in China and Mexico soon after Pam Bondi, a former Pfizer legal consultant, became Attorney General in February 2025. The investigation’s closure, evident from Pfizer’s latest filings, has raised concerns about Bondi’s influence and DOJ impartiality.

For the past several years, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for potential foreign corruption violations related to its activities in China and Mexico, according to the company’s financial filings.

But that appears to have changed after the Trump administration tapped Pam Bondi — previously an outside legal counsel for Pfizer — to lead the Justice department as attorney general.

In the company’s most recent annual report, filed three weeks after Bondi took office in early February, there was no longer any reference to the Justice Department investigations into the company’s potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. A quarterly a report in May also contains no reference to these investigations.

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Feds seize $1M OC home at center of corruption scandal

The U.S. government has seized a home in unincorporated Tustin at the center of the corruption scheme involving former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do. The home was purchased by Do’s daughter Rhiannon Do for a little more than $1 million in 2023.

The downpayment came from taxpayer money awarded to a nonprofit led by Rhiannon Do. That money was supposed to be used to feed needy seniors.

The backstory: Andrew Do was sentenced to five years in prison last month for accepting bribes disguised as payments to his two adult daughters, including the $385,000 downpayment for Rhiannon Do’s home in unincorporated Tustin.

The forfeited assets: As part of Do’s sentencing, Judge James V. Selna found that he had an interest in the Tustin home, another property, and $2.4 million in bank accounts. Selna ordered the immediate transfer of the assets to the federal government.

What happens now? Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the Tustin home would be “sold just like any other property,” and the money will be returned to Orange County.

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Administrator Kelly Loeffler Announces Full-Scale Audit of SBA 8(a) Program After DOJ Finds Over $550 Million in Contracts Linked to Bribery and Fraud Scheme

A USAID official and three government contractors pleaded guilty to a decade-long bribery scheme involving over $550 million in contracts, according to the Justice Department.

According to court documents, beginning in 2013, USAID contracting officer Roderick Watson agreed with corporate executive Darryl Britt to receive bribes in exchange for Watson’s influence to award contracts to a small business named Apprio and its subcontractor Vistant.

Watson received more than $1 million in bribes to steer no-bid contracts to Apprio and Vistant.

Wilson and Britt used the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) contracting program, which helps ‘socially and economically disadvantaged businesses’ bid on contracts, to make this massive scheme possible.

Per the DOJ:

Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.

  • Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official;
  • Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, who was the owner and president of PM Consulting Group LLC doing business as Vistant (Vistant), a certified small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud;
  • Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, who was the owner and president of Apprio, Inc. (Apprio), a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official; and
  • Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, who was the president of a subcontractor to Vistant and Apprio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.

On Friday, Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration announced the SBA will perform a full-scale audit of the 8(a) race-based contracting program.

Loeffler released this statement Friday.

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Trump Grants Full Pardon for Former Virginia Sheriff

President Donald Trump on Monday said he has pardoned Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a federal bribery conviction.

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform, calling Jenkins a victim of “an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” who “doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”

A federal jury in December 2024 found Jenkins guilty on all 12 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and bribery in connection with his 2023 reelection campaign. Prosecutors said he accepted at least $72,000 in cash bribes in exchange for badges through the county’s auxiliary sheriff’s deputy program.

According to court documents, several individuals, including three co-defendants and two undercover FBI agents, were promised official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and identification, despite not being trained, vetted, or performing any law enforcement duties.Jenkins maintained his innocence, while his three co-defendants pleaded guilty. His defense argued that the payments were legitimate campaign contributions and that it was within his authority as a sheriff to designate auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

In March, Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison and had filed an appeal.

Trump came to Jenkins’s defense on Monday, accusing the judge who presided over the case of being politically motivated and excluding exculpatory evidence in favor of the sheriff during the trial.

The judges allegedly “allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence,” the president wrote.

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Fox News Notches Big Win Against Smartmatic as Appeals Court Grants Access to Damning Insider Info

Fox News lawyers fighting off a defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic Voting Systems have been granted access to new ammunition.

Last week, Fox was granted access to materials connected with a 2024 federal bribery indictment concerning company co-founder and president Roger Piñate and other company executives, according to The Wrap.

The Justice Department has alleged that more than $1 million in bribes went from company executives to a Philippine official in an attempt to influence which voting machines were used in the nation’s 2016 elections, according to a Justice Department news release.

Those charged have pleaded not guilty.

Fox claimed that the charges are relevant to its defense because Smartmatic was suffering for reasons other than Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election, according to The Wrap.

“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling that materials about Smartmatic executives’ indictments are ‘plainly relevant’ to its lack of damages. The factual evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on Fox News,” Fox said in a statement.

In a separate filing calling for summary judgment in its favor, Fox argued that Smartmatic’s sales had “cratered” before the 2020 election.

Fox  sought to undercut Smartmatic’s claim that it was damaged by saying that the company’s books show “no profit record to serve as a basis for projecting millions of dollars in future profits.”

Smartmatic fired back against Fox News in a separate filing, according to CNN.

The company alleged in court documents that Fox “orchestrated the destruction of text messages across all levels of their corporate hierarchy … despite a clear duty to preserve evidence.”

Smartmatic claimed Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch “deleted their texts” in an “extensive and willful” fashion.

Fox said the allegation was a “desperate attempt to distract” from the ruling in Fox’s favor.

“Smartmatic weakly attempts to resurrect stale, baseless discovery issues that actually were disclosed by Fox and resolved two years ago,” a Fox representative said.

“These issues have no bearing on the merits of Smartmatic’s case, which has fallen apart at every turn,” the Fox representative said.

As noted by The Wrap. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion from Fox.

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Retired 4-star Navy admiral found guilty in bribery case

The Navy’s former No. 2 officer on Monday was found guilty of bribery and other counts related to steering work to a company in exchange for a job after leaving the service, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Retired Adm. Robert Burke, former Navy vice chief of naval operations, was convicted of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts. His conviction makes him the senior-most member of the U.S. military ever found guilty of committing a federal crime while serving on active duty.

“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement. “Our office, with our law enforcement partners, will root out corruption — be it bribes or illegal contracts — and hold accountable the perpetrators, no matter what title or rank they hold.”

Burke, 63, of Coconut Creek, Fla., was arrested last year and charged with the crimes along with the co-CEOs of technology services firm Next Jump — the company he joined after retirement — Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger. 

Kim and Messenger, both of New York, were each charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery, according to the case’s unsealed indictment. They face trial in August, which is when Burke will be sentenced. 

The saga marks a devastating blow to the Navy, which in the past several years has struggled with a loss of confidence in numerous top officers, command failures and bribery scandals. 

Burke, who served aboard attack and ballistic missile submarines, rose through the ranks to eventually become chief of naval personnel in 2016 followed by vice chief of naval operations in June 2019. He then took command of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command in June 2020 before retiring in summer 2022.

Kim and Messenger, meanwhile, via their company Next Jump, provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The deal appeared to turn sour, however, and the Navy terminated a contract with the company in late 2019 and directed it not to contact Burke.

But in summer 2021, Messenger and Kim met with Burke in Washington, D.C., to reestablish their company’s business relationship with the Navy. While at the meeting, the two “agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a contract” to their firm — as well as influence other Navy officers to award another contract to the company — in exchange for his future employment there, according to the Justice Department. 

Burke in December 2021 then ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Next Jump to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain, which the company performed in January 2022. 

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Multiple Mississippi elected officials indicted in federal bribery investigation

Several top elected officials in Mississippi’s most populous county are now defendants in a federal bribery probe.

HuffPost reporter Sam Levine tweeted an announcement from the Department of Justice, stating that an indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi in which three high-profile officials have officially been charged with “participating in a bribery scheme to enrich themselves.”

According to the indictment, Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Jackson city council member (and former council president) Aaron Banks are all named as defendants. Mayor Lumumba confirmed his indictment to local NBC affiliate WLBT on Wednesday.

The indictment alleges that Jackson’s mayor, the district attorney in Jackson and members of Jackson’s city council conspired to accept bribes in exchange for official acts benefiting purported real estate developers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, who heads the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

“Officials who abuse their positions of authority to enrich themselves undermine public confidence in government. The Justice Department is committed to restoring that confidence by working with its law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute public corruption.”

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