Ex-US congressman sentenced to 10 years in prison for $50m Venezuela lobbying scheme
River's ex-housemate, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, testified he had no idea about his activities.
Ex-US congressman sentenced to 10 years in prison for $50m Venezuela lobbying scheme
A former US congressman has been handed a 10-year federal prison sentence for money laundering and acting as an undeclared foreign agent.
David Rivera, 61, who was elected as a Florida Republican, was convicted in May after a seven-week trial that heard Venezuela’s state-run oil company had hired his consulting firm to lobby members of Congress in an effort to improve US relations with Venezuela.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former housemate of Rivera, and Texas congressman Pete Sessions both told the court they had no knowledge of his activities.
Rivera’s defence lawyers argued that the lobbying was carried out for a US subsidiary of the oil company, not for the Venezuelan government.
Rivera’s associate, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, who was tried with him, was also convicted in the case.
As part of his sentence, Rivera, who served in Congress from 2011-13, must also give up his Florida properties.
Federal prosecutors in Florida said Rivera and Nuhfer took part in a "secret political influence campaign", securing a $50m (£37m) contract for three months of work on behalf of a US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, also known as Citgo.
Prosecutors said that in 2017 and 2018, at the request of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government, Rivera and Nuhfer tried to lobby Rubio - then still a senator and former housemate of Rivera - as well as Kellyanne Conway, a former senior White House adviser.
The lobbying took place amid strained US-Venezuela relations during President Donald Trump's first term in the White House, when his administration imposed sanctions on the South American country.
Rivera and Nuhfer’s defence lawyers maintained that the pair did not have to register as foreign agents because their contract was with a US-based subsidiary of a Venezuelan state company.
But Judge Melissa Damian said at Friday’s sentencing: "There's no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime."
Rubio, who was not accused of any wrongdoing, testified at the trial that he was close friends with Rivera but did not know he was working as a lobbyist.