This afternoon, 68-year-old former Eagle Pass City Manager Hector Chavez, Sr., admitted to lying to FBI agents during their investigation into a “pay-to-play” scheme involving Maverick County contracts, announced United States Attorney Richard Durbin, Jr., and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division. 

 

Appearing before United States District Judge Alia Moses, Chavez pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to a federal agent. By pleading guilty, Chavez admitted that on June 25, 2015, he knowingly gave false statements to agents regarding his response to a federal grand jury subpoena, his work on Maverick County contracts, and a personal consulting services contract with Hejl, Lee and Associates.

 

According to court records, on May 4, 2015, a federal grand jury subpoena was issued to Chace Management, a company owned by the defendant, for all records regarding any subcontracting work done for Hejl, Lee and Associates. Chavez, admittedly, lied to authorities about creating a fraudulent, hand-written personal services agreement he provided in response to the subpoena. Chavez also claimed to have received approximately $24,000 for services rendered to Hejl, Lee and Associates when in fact, the work listed in the agreement never took place.

 

Chavez, who remains on bond pending sentencing, faces up to ten years in federal prison. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled. 

 

This investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division together with the Customs and Border Protection Office of Internal Affairs. Assistant United States Attorneys Katherine Griffin, Daniel Lee and Todd Keagle are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.

He also said that police officers have seen an increase in arrests dealing with drugs like meth, heroin, and cocaine. However, the drug most commonly seen during arrests, as common as alcohol, is marijuana.
Domestic violence calls are usually linked to money troubles, alcoholism, marital problems, and sometimes is viewed as a cultural norm, said Guajardo, but none of the reasons are an excuse, and should not be tolerated.
As a patrol officer and an investigator, Guajardo saw many domestic violence cases which were avoidable, but unfortunately common.

    También como parte de la Corte de Honor fueron la Sra. Anita Vargas, Princesa, acompañada del Gilberto Esquivel
    Despues, el momento que todos esperaban la coronación de la nueva Reina de Corazones, la Reina entrante María del Carmen Chami  y fue acompañada por el Sr. Sóstenes Reyna.

REINA 2017
María del Carmen Chami
Acompañada del
Sr. Só́stenes Reyna

CORTE DE HONOR 2017

DUQUESA
Sra. Juanita Huerta
Acompañ̃ada por su hijo: José Huerta

PRINCESA
Sra. Anita Vargas
Acompañada del Señor:
Gilberto Esquivel

Lee confirmed that no arrests had been made.

Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat and personal injury attorney, has been entwined in a complicated saga involving FourWinds Logistics, which sold sand used in hydraulic fracturing, a process that extracts oil and gas from shale rock.

A lengthy investigation published by the Express-News in August first detailed Uresti’s involvement in the company and fraud allegations it faces.

Three months later, Uresti coasted to reelection, winning his San Antonio seat with 56 percent of the vote against Republican and Libertarian challengers. Uresti is among the legislature's most powerful Democrats. He is vice chair of the Health and Human Services committee and sits on three other high-profile committees: Finance, Education and Veteran Affairs & Border Security. 

Uresti did not immediately respond to the Texas Tribune's request a for comment Thursday, nor did staffers in his office.

There did not appear to be any law enforcement activity at Uresti's senate office in the Texas Capitol Thursday morning.

FourWinds’ purported intent was to buy sand and sell it at a markup to oil and gas companies, but some investors have accused the company’s leadership of misrepresenting its financial health and spending their money on frivolous, personal expenses. It now faces millions of dollars in claims from investors and other companies.

Denise Cantu, whom Uresti represented in a wrongful-death case, said she lost most of the $900,000 she invested in the now-bankrupt company in 2014 at the suggestion of Uresti, according to the Express-News. She has said she was not initially aware that Uresti would get a piece of her investment, though Uresti has suggested otherwise.

With allegations of serious financial mismanagement detailed in bankruptcy court, the FBI last year opened an investigation into FourWinds, the Express-News reported. In August, Uresti told the paper that he was a “witness” in that investigation but not its target.

On Nov. 4, four days before Election Day, Eric Nelson, the former marketing director for FourWinds, was indicted for his role in an alleged scheme to defraud investors. He later pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Federal attorneys accused Nelson of altering company bank statements to “grossly” inflate its account balance. At least two more former FourWinds employees have been indicted since the election: Shannon Smith, who held a 48 percent stake in the company, and Laura Jacobs, who worked as its comptroller. They face similar charges to Nelson's. 

FourWinds had paid Uresti to attract investors before it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in August 2015 — beset by allegations of fraud and misused funds.

Cantu’s 13-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son and two friends were killed in 2010, when a tire on her SUV blew out, causing the vehicle to roll over. Her legal team, which included Uresti, secured the wrongful-death settlement in 2013, and about a year later, she said she decided to invest the bulk of the money into FourWinds at Uresti’s urging.

Stan Bates, the company’s CEO and majority owner, told Cantu in text messages that Uresti was sharing 10 percent of the profits from her $900,000 investment, court records show.

Documents in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings list Uresti as owner of a 1 percent stake in FourWinds. Also, the company granted Uresti a $40,000 in June of 2014, and hired him to perform legal services, the documents show.

In August, Uresti told the Express-News that the company never transferred stock certificates to him, and the transfer was never registered by the Secretary of State.

But on his 2015 Personal Financial Statement, a document Texas lawmakers must file to the Texas Ethics Commission to shed light on their sources of income and affiliations, Uresti listed owning between 100 and 499 shares of FourWinds stock.

That document, first filed in February of last year, did not originally disclose the $40,000 loan. Nor did it show that he served on the board of one of the company’s joint ventures.

Uresti corrected the document in August, following the Express-News investigation. He called it an “oversight” that “won’t happen again,” the newspaper reported at the time.

Menéndez, who could face both civil and criminal fines for the disclosure failures, said he would quickly amend his campaign finance reports and accept any punishment regulators decide on. 

“The ultimate responsibility is with me,” Menéndez told the Tribune. “I’m not going to be throwing anybody under the bus. I will comply with whatever they decide. If they decide there is a fine required or whatever, they’ll make their judgment and I will step up and take responsibility.”

Menéndez also said he was implementing new procedures to ensure that he doesn’t miss other contributions. He said the donation in 2015 from the lawsuit reform group, TLR PAC, was a wire transfer. The one in 2016 from the trial lawyer group, TTLA PAC, came via check. 

“We take compliance very seriously, and we’re implementing new safeguards to make sure that nothing slips through,” Menéndez said.

The Tribune found the missing donations by comparing outgoing contributions from the two political action committees to the donations that candidates disclosed receiving from them in 2015 and 2016.. The two PACs reported making the cash donations, as the law requires, but Menéndez did not include them on his disclosure reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission. 

Elsewhere, the Tribune investigation found a $9,975 in-kind donation from TTLA to Sen. Carlos Uresti in 2016 that the San Antonio Democrat failed to disclose. Uresti said his campaign erred by lumping the in-kind donation — a poll of voters in his district — in with another TTLA donation used to buy advertising.

Uresti said Tuesday he had amended his report to reflect the missing contribution.

“We realized that was an oversight,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye out and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Without addressing any particular candidate or set of facts, Ian Steusloff, general counsel for the Texas Ethics Commission, said failing to report donations is a violation of state law. 

“It’s against the law not to report something that’s legally required,” Stuesloff said. 

Most enforcement action comes after a member of the public — including political opponents — file sworn complaints against a particular candidate. However, the commission may also act on its own. The commission can assess penalties of up to $5,000 per violation or three times the amount at issue, whichever is greater, Stuesloff said.

Officeholders can also face criminal penalties for campaign finance violations, ranging from a Class C to a Class A misdemeanor depending on the circumstances, but prosecutions by state attorneys are rare. 

Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a liberal watchdog group that tracks the influence of money in state politics, said the large amount of money in question with the Menéndez donations, plus the high-profile nature of the groups giving it, will inevitably “raise suspicions that this was a thought-out attempt to hide the source of the money.” 

During his bruising 2015 race against former Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer, D-San Antonio, Menendez faced blowback from some Democrats for advertisements that TLR, a conservative group that has pushed for limits on civil lawsuits, ran on his behalf. 

“This is a serious enough violation that the Ethics Commission should take action on its own,” McDonald said. “It needs to be investigated and prosecuted.”

Menéndez, who served 15 years in the House before running for Senate, said there was no intent to deceive the voters.

"Of the 20 years I’ve been in office and the thousands of contributions that have been processed, here are two examples" of an oversight, he said.

Ryan Murphy contributed to this report