Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX28) presents a record dominated not by stock trading or absenteeism but by a major federal corruption case: in May 2024 he and his wife Imelda were indicted on 14 counts including bribery, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, wire fraud, and money laundering, with DOJ alleging ~$600,000 in payments from an Azerbaijani state oil company and a Mexican bank were laundered through family-owned shell companies in exchange for official acts. He has no meaningful individual-stock trading and a strong voting-attendance record (1.7% missed votes), but he diverted the majority of his 2024 campaign spending (over $784,900) to criminal-defense legal fees. The case ended without conviction when President Trump pardoned both Cuellars on December 3, 2025; all allegations remain unproven in court. Scores are elevated on the money-influence, revolving-door, and net-worth components because of the indictment's specific, sourced allegations, while clean-record components (stock trading, job-vs-fundraising) score low.
Public record
In Congress since
2005
Committees
Appropriations
Missed votes, 119th Congress
1.3% (9 of 674; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$2.2M raised · 30% from PACs & committees · $1.1M cash on hand FEC ↗
The stock-trading ban
H.R. 7008 passage, Jul 22, 2026
Yes
Cosponsored a ban bill
None
H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →
Disclosed stock trades
No periodic transaction reports on file since 2024. That's the norm: most members don't trade individual stocks, or hold them in blind trusts and diversified funds.
Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.
How the score breaks down
Stock self-trading
25% weight
0
No individual-stock trading found. Quiver Quantitative shows no trades, no disclosed equity holdings, and zero trade volume for Cuellar. STOCK Act PTR record is effectively empty; per rubric, 0 for no individual-stock activity.
Reported net worth rose sharply from roughly $602K (2018) to an estimated ~$8.5M (2023) per third-party trackers, far above congressional salary plus market. Federal indictment ties ~$600K in undisclosed foreign payments (2014-2021) flowing to family shell companies, directly relevant to unexplained growth, though disclosure-based net-worth figures vary widely and post-date the alleged scheme.
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
90
Correlation, not proof — though here a federal indictment alleges direct quid pro quo. DOJ charged Cuellar with accepting ~$600K from an Azerbaijani state oil company and a Mexico City bank in exchange for using his office to shape U.S. foreign policy toward Azerbaijan and to influence legislation/Executive Branch officials for the bank. He was indicted May 2024 on 14 counts including bribery, foreign-agent, wire fraud, and money laundering; pardoned by President Trump Dec 3, 2025 (no conviction).
Cuellar steered the majority of his 2024 campaign spending to personal legal defense: more than $784,900 of ~$1.5M spent through March 2024 went to legal fees, including ~$690K to Clifford Chance (his criminal-defense firm) and $46,900 to Perkins Coie. Using donor funds for criminal-defense costs is permissible under FEC rules but represents a large personal benefit from campaign donations.
Family used as conduit for office-tied money: indictment alleges bribes were laundered via sham 'consulting' contracts through shell companies owned by wife Imelda Cuellar (who did little/no real work) and at least one adult child helped create the shell entities. Cuellar also allegedly recruited a former campaign manager to facilitate payments. This is family/associate enrichment directly tied to his office rather than classic post-Hill lobbying, but squarely within the revolving-door/influence-conduit concern.
Strong attendance: missed only 229 of 13,836 roll-call votes (1.7%) over 2005-May 2026, below the ~2.1% median. No evidence of paid-speech income or fundraising-driven absenteeism; he continued raising and spending heavily but did not neglect floor duties. Low score reflects diligent voting record.
Sources behind this score: 1 data aggregator · 3 official record · 3 reference database · 2 news reporting. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 0 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →
Embed this score on your site
Updates automatically when the score changes.
Right of reply
Is something here wrong or missing context? Members and their staff can send a correction or a statement. Statements are published on this page in full, and corrections go in the public log. Email corrections@greederboard.com.
