Ex-Congressman Headed To The Slammer For Working With Commies

Former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison for secretly lobbying on behalf of the Venezuelan government and laundering millions of dollars tied to the work.

U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian handed down the sentence after a federal jury convicted Rivera, 61, in May of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts involving transactions with criminally derived property.

Jason A. Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said the sentence demonstrates that “foreign influence in America cannot operate in the shadows.”

“For a former Congressman from South Florida, this betrayal cuts especially deep,” Quiñones said. “Rivera represented a community shaped by generations of families who fled communist oppression and came to this country seeking freedom. He knew that history. He knew what this community had endured. Yet the jury found that, for millions of dollars, he secretly used the access and relationships entrusted to him to advance the interests of the Maduro regime.” 

Rivera was elected to the House in November 2010 and served one term before losing reelection. He was indicted in 2022. 

According to the Department of Justice, the case centered on a $50 million contract that Rivera and co-defendant Esther Nuhfer obtained with a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). The DOJ said the pair worked to “advance the interests” of the government of then-President Nicolás Maduro without registering as foreign agents. 

Trial evidence showed that Rivera and Nuhfer lobbied U.S. officials, including then-Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Pete Sessions, and arranged meetings between U.S. policymakers and senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro and then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez. They also used coded language in text messages to conceal their conduct.

Rivera directed $1.5 million from the contract to his campaign account between March 2017 and August 2018, according to the DOJ.

“Today’s sentencing represents a meaningful step toward restoring public trust in the integrity of our democratic processes,” said Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office. “It also demonstrates the impact of federal partners working together and combining their investigative expertise. And no attempt to conceal unlawful conduct will remain beyond the FBI’s reach.”