Former El Paso County Official Pleads Guilty In Bond Conspiracy

DALLAS – Former El Paso County, Texas Judge Anthony Cobos pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal public corruption charges involving the selection of underwriters for a $40 million county bond refunding in 2007.

Cobos entered the guilty plea to single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services at Tuesday’s hearing before federal Magistrate Frank Montalvo.

Cobos had been scheduled to stand trial next week.

The trial of co-defendant Lorenzo Aguilar is scheduled to get under way Sept. 9, but no sentencing date has been set for Cobos. He could receive up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

In Texas, the county judge is the county’s chief administrative officer. It is not a judicial position.

Cobos pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy charge in January after prosecutors dropped two of the three allegations he had been facing.

A superseding indictment issued in July charged Cobos and others with engaging in a conspiracy to engage Bear, Stearns & Co. as underwriter for a $40 million refunding of county general obligation bonds in 2007.

Cobos was accused of receiving a total of $6,000 from Bear, Stearns representatives Roberto Ruiz and Christopher Chol-Su Pak. The two pleaded guilty in December 2007 to charges in a separate but related case.

The indictment said Ruiz, Pak, and El Paso attorney Raymond Telles “recognized the opportunity existed to make money for themselves and employers by obtaining control of the 2007 El Paso County’s bond re-finance project.”

Cobos received $1,500 in cash on March 16, 2007, according to the indictment. El Paso County commissioners approved Bear, Stearns as underwriter on March 19.

In return for his support, federal authorities contend, three $1,500 checks were delivered to Cobos after the selection of underwriters.

Cobos was accused of soliciting and receiving the money through “bribery and the concealment of material information.”

The indictment charges that Aguilar and unidentified co-conspirators bribed Cobos to “enrich themselves by obtaining favorable action for themselves and other persons through corrupt means.” 

The former county judge was arrested in December 2011 by the FBI on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and deprivation of honest services. He spent six days in jail before being released on bond.

Cobos served two terms on the El Paso City Council before being elected county judge in November 2006. He did not run for re-election in 2010.

The FBI raided El Paso County government offices in 2007, and since then, dozens of El Paso political and business figures pleaded guilty or were convicted of public corruption charges, according to the El Paso Times.

El Paso County is a more transparent organization than it was in 2007, said County Judge Veronica Escobar.

“While the justice system has done its part, we at the county have worked hard to rebuild public trust by focusing on major reforms,” Escobar said after Cobos pleaded guilty.

“We have used what we’ve learned from the corruption trials to strengthen the organization where it was weak and to add sunlight where it was dark.”

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