In 2025, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais pleaded guilty to a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offense of some sort in the Western District of Texas. (See here for the prior post).
The facts and circumstances of the enforcement action were unclear as much of the substantive court docket was under seal.
However, last Friday the DOJ announced that “The Scoular Company (Scoular), an agricultural supply chain company based in Omaha, Nebraska, will pay over $10 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a years-long scheme in which it relied on bribery of Mexican officials to deliver trains of goods across the U.S.-Mexico border.” (See here for the prior post).
According to the DOJ release, Carlos Leopoldo Alvelais was a customs broker who paid bribes on behalf of Scoular.
With the Scoular enforcement action announced, yesterday Alvelais was sentenced and various resolution documents were unsealed.
Judge Kathleen Cardone (W.D. Texas) sentenced Alvelais to 18 months with a surrender date of October 19, 2026 and three years of supervised release following the prison sentence. Judge Cardone also ordered him to pay a $250,000 criminal fine with the following specifics: “Payment of this sum shall begin immediately at a rate of not less than $2,000.00 per month. The defendant shall cooperate fully with the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Probation Office to make payment in full as soon as possible. The payment plan shall not affect the ability of the United States to immediately collect payment in full through garnishment.”
The plea agreement states that Alvelais (a U.S. citizen) was the founder and president of Alvelais Forwarding & Logistics, Inc. (AFLI) and Agencia Aduanal Alvelais Alarcon S.C. (Alvelais Customs Agency) and was a customs broker for various companies including Scoular.
According to the plea agreement:
“During the relevant time, cross-border train shipments of food and agricultural products underwent an inspection process administered by Mexico’s Secretaria de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural or Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (“SADER” referred to herein using its former name SAGARPA), which was the federal government agency of Mexico mandated with regulating the inspection of food and agricultural products crossing from the United States into Mexico. These inspections sought to detect the presence of dirt, soil, and other impurities, often referred to in Spanish as “suelo.” SAGARPA approval was required before any train was cleared to enter Mexico. If “suelo” was detected during the inspection process, SAGARPA was authorized to delay a train’s entry into Mexico and impose fumigation and demurrage fees, which could exceed $100,000 per train.
In or around June 2013 [Scoular] engaged Alvelais, AFLI, and Alvelais Customs Agency to broker shipments of corn, wheat, and other products through the SAGARPA inspection process at border crossings in El Paso, Laredo, and Eagle Pass. Thereafter, Alvelais, and others, including employees and agents of [Scoular] engaged in a scheme in which they offered to pay, paid, promised to pay, and authorized the payment of bribes, directly and indirectly, to and for the benefit of Mexican government officials, in order to avoid customs, importation, and other regulatory fees and delays that would otherwise be incurred under Mexico law if the officials detected impurities in imported food and agricultural products, due in part to the fact that [Scoular], unlike others in the agricultural supply chain, including other U.S. companies, had not obtained Mexican regulatory approval or other appropriate legal authorization to clean contaminated products at processing facilities in Mexico. [Scoular] employees authorized the payment of fees to Alvelais and his companies, knowing that Alvelais would use part of the money to pay bribes to Mexican government officials to avoid customs, importation, and other regulatory fees under Mexican law and delays on [Scoular] shipments. It was further a purpose of the conspiracy to conceal the bribe payments, proceeds, and funds related to the corrupt scheme.
In furtherance of the bribery scheme, Alvelais submitted invoices to [Scoular] with the additional line item of approximately $2,000 to $3,000 per shipment falsely characterized as “SAGARPA process” fees, among other characterizations, which would be used to pay bribes to ensure the importation of [Scoular] shipments into Mexico. Regardless of whether a bribe was necessary to ensure the importation of the shipment into Mexico, Alvelais and others collected these “SAGARPA process” fees. Alvelais, Company Employee 1, Company Employee 2, and others regularly communicated about corrupt payments to and for the benefit of Mexican government officials using encrypted messaging on WhatsApp, to conceal the nature of the communications. The bribery scheme continued at least through 2023, with [Scoular], its affiliated corporate entity in Mexico, Alvelais, and others having introduced a third-party corporate entity into the scheme, with the effect that [Scoular] would no longer be directly invoiced for the bribes that were still being paid to facilitate the cross-border transport of [Scoular] shipments.”
