Former Congressman David Rivera Sentenced to 10 Years Over $50 Million Secret Venezuela Lobbying

MIAMI — A former Florida congressman and longtime friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in federal prison over a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on behalf of Venezuela during the first Trump administration.

David Rivera, 61, a Republican who represented Miami in Congress from 2011 to 2013, had been jailed since a Miami jury convicted him in May on all counts, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent for the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to the Associated Press.

US District Judge Melissa Damian told Rivera he had betrayed his life’s mission, noting he would surely have been judged harshly by his many friends “had the millions of dollars come from the Cuban regime instead of its allies in Caracas.”

The seven-week trial heard that Rivera’s consulting firm accepted a $50 million contract from a US-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA in 2017, aimed at improving relations between the White House and Maduro’s government. Testifying for the prosecution, Rubio — once Rivera’s housemate — said he had no idea his friend was working for Caracas, as did Representative Pete Sessions and a top Washington lobbyist.

Rivera professed his innocence before sentencing, saying he believed the arrangement never required foreign-agent registration. His lawyers plan to appeal and in June applied for a presidential pardon; he faces further related federal charges in Washington, D.C. The judge has yet to rule on the government’s request that he forfeit $20 million in criminal proceeds.

SOURCES

• CNN
• Associated Press
• Newsmax