Ruben Gallegos Jr., the CEO of International Education Services, or IES, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on embezzlement and theft charges.
Gallegos was taken into custody Thursday after a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest, federal court documents reflect. He was to be held on no bond.
Count one of the indictment charges Gallegos with conspiracy, and count two charges him with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.
The IES contracted with the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program and provided temporary shelter care and other related services to unaccompanied alien children, according to the federal indictment. IES received almost all of its funding in the form of federal grants, and for each fiscal year from 2014 through 2018, it received millions of dollars in federal grant funds.
According to the Aug. 30, partially unsealed federal indictment, from 2014 through 2018, Gallegos did knowingly conspire with another unnamed person to commit an offense against the United States, to “embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud knowingly convert without authority, and intentionally misapply property that is valued at $5,000 U.S. dollars or more, and is owned by, or is under the care, custody, or control of, an organization that receives more than $10,000 U.S. dollars in federal assistance in any one year period.”
The indictment reads that from 2014 to 2017, Gallegos and another unnamed person caused IES to use federal grant funds to pay themselves salaries that were hundreds of thousands of dollars above the salary cap imposed by federal regulations.
In addition, Gallegos and others used IES federal grant funds to lease properties from themselves and others, “at rates in excess of the limits imposed by federal regulations.”
The federal government is seeking to seize multiple properties on Maverick Road that are owned by Gallegos, the federal indictment reads. Gallegos was taken to the Brownsville City Jail late Thursday morning and was to remain there overnight.
IES closed in 2018 after the government did not renew its funding.
Editor’s note: This story’s headline was updated for clarity.
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