Shelter’s CEO charged with embezzlement

The CEO of a migrant children’s shelter has been indicted by a federal grand jury on embezzlement and theft charges.

Ruben Gallegos Jr., the CEO of International Education Services, or IES, was taken into custody Thursday and held on no bond, according to court documents.

The IES contracted with the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program and provided temporary shelter care and other related services to unaccompanied children, according to the federal indictment.

IES received almost all of its funding from federal grants, and for each fiscal year from 2014 through 2018, it received millions of dollars in federal grant funds.

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,” according to the indictment.

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 Thursday.