TEXAS
Three Texas men were sentenced Wednesday for their roles in a conspiracy to pay bribes to two city commissioners in Weslaco in exchange for their official actions in connection with city contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Former Hidalgo County Commissioner Arturo C. Cuellar Jr., 69, of Progresso Lakes, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ricardo Quintanilla, 57, and John F. Cuellar, 60, both of Weslaco, were sentenced to more than 16 years in prison, and three years, respectively.
“Our office will not turn a blind eye to public corruption, especially when it results in significant burdens to residents within our district,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “Weslaco was warned for years to upgrade its water infrastructure in order to provide potable water. The defendants used this opportunity to participate in a multimillion-dollar scheme that ultimately saddled residents with debt and bribery costs for their drinking water system.”
According to court evidence presented at trial, Arturo Cuellar and Quintanilla agreed with others to bribe two Weslaco City Commissioners, John Cuellar and Gerardo Tafolla, in exchange for official actions favorable to engineering companies seeking large contracts with the city.
(NEWS REPORT – THREE YEARS AGO)
From approximately March 2008 through December 2015, one of the participants in the scheme received approximately $4.1 million from two engineering companies and shared nearly $1.4 million with Arturo Cuellar.
Arturo Cuellar used a company he controlled to facilitate the payment of approximately $405,000 in bribes to his cousin, John Cuellar, which were disguised as legitimate legal expenses.
In exchange for these payments, John Cuellar took several official actions to benefit the companies, including helping award contracts worth approximately $38.5 million to rehabilitate Weslaco’s water treatment facilities.
Quintanilla received approximately $85,000 during the scheme and used that money to pay bribes to Tafolla for his official actions to benefit the companies that received the water treatment plant contracts.
Arturo Cuellar and Quintanilla were convicted at trial in a federal court in Texas in October 2022.
Arturo Cuellar was convicted of 61 counts in total, including one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, four counts of honest services wire fraud, one count of federal programs bribery, one count of money laundering conspiracy, 27 counts of money laundering, and 27 counts of Travel Act violations.
Quintanilla was convicted of 15 counts, including one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, four counts of honest services wire fraud, one count of federal programs bribery, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and eight counts of money laundering.
John Cuellar pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in August 2019.
“Today’s sentencing is a testament to the FBI’s commitment to pursue public corruption alongside our law enforcement partners. Any public official who chooses to serve themselves over their constituents will be brought to justice. Rio Grande Valley residents deserve elected leaders who can be trusted,” said Special Agent in Charge Oliver E. Rich Jr. of the FBI San Antonio Field Office.
Tafolla pleaded guilty in April 2019 and will be sentenced later.
The FBI San Antonio Field Office and IRS-CI Houston Field Office investigated the case.
Senior Litigation Counsel Marco A. Palmieri and Trial Attorney William J. Gullotta of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section (PIN) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberto Lopez Jr. for the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.