Former congressman gets 10 years in Venezuela foreign agent case

Former U.S. Rep. David Rivera, 61, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for secretly acting as an unregistered agent of the Venezuelan government and laundering millions of dollars tied to that work, federal prosecutors announced.

U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian imposed the sentence after a federal jury convicted Rivera of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), violating FARA, conspiracy to commit money laundering and four counts of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Rivera and co-defendant Esther Nuhfer obtained a $50 million contract with a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), to advance the Venezuelan regime’s interests in the United States. Prosecutors said the pair lobbied U.S. officials, including then-Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Pete Sessions, without registering as foreign agents.

They also arranged meetings between U.S. policymakers and senior Venezuelan officials, including then-President Nicolás Maduro and then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, and used coded language in text messages to describe their activities, according to the evidence.

Evidence at trial also showed Rivera deposited about $1.5 million in contract proceeds into his Florida campaign account between March 2017 and August 2018. Nuhfer used about $455,000 in proceeds to buy a home in Key Colony Beach, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said the sentence reinforces a rule that “foreign influence in America cannot operate in the shadows.” He said anyone acting at the request, direction or control of a foreign government who engages in covered political activity must comply with disclosure laws. Such activity can include arranging meetings with policymakers, lobbying officials or promoting a foreign government’s message on social media.

Reding Quiñones said the jury found Rivera secretly used his access and relationships to advance the Maduro regime’s interests in exchange for millions of dollars.

Brett D. Skiles, special agent in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, called the sentencing “a meaningful step toward restoring public trust” in democratic processes. Charles E. Miller, acting special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Florida Field Office, said the case shows laundering illicit funds in the United States “will not go unchecked.”

Nuhfer, 52, was convicted at trial of conspiracy to violate FARA, violating FARA, conspiracy to commit money laundering and engaging in a transaction in criminally derived property. She was previously sentenced to 60 months in federal prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harold Schimkat and Roger Cruz, along with Trial Attorney David Ryan of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, are prosecuting the case. FBI Miami and the IRS-CI Florida Field Office investigated, with support from the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture. The case number in the Southern District of Florida is 22-cr-20552.