The 54-page indictment filed in federal district court in Houston was unsealed Friday and charges Cuellar with 14 counts including conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering. He is also accused of acting as a foreign agent to benefit the government of Azerbaijan. 

Federal prosecutors allege that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Rios Cuellar, accepted at least $598,000 in bribes from the Azerbaijani oil and gas company and the bank, which is headquartered in Mexico City. They allege that the bribes were laundered in the form of sham consulting contracts through front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar. The congressman's wife, according to the indictment, "performed little or no legitimate" work under the consulting contracts.