A federal jury convicted David Rivera, a Republican from Miami who served in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Former Florida congressman David Rivera was found guilty on Friday, May 1, of conspiracy and other charges for his role in a secret $50 million campaign on behalf of the Venezuelan government to lobby members of Congress, including Rivera’s longtime friend Marco Rubio.
Rivera, a Republican, was ordered detained on Friday after a jury in Miami federal court found him and his consultant Esther Neufer guilty of failing to register as foreign agents of Venezuela while lobbying then-Senator Marco Rubio and others to improve relations with the country in 2017 and 2018.
When will former Florida Congressman David Rivera be sentenced?
Sentencing for Mr. Rivera and Mr. Neufer is scheduled for July 22 before U.S. District Judge Melissa Damion, according to court records. They each face a possible sentence of more than 10 years in prison and forfeiture of $20 million.
Rivera, 60, served one term in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013. Before that, he served as a state representative in Tallahassee and lived in the state capital with Rubio, who is now secretary of state under President Donald Trump.
What is the relationship between Marco Rubio and David Rivera?
Mr. Rubio was not charged in the case, but he testified during Rivera’s five-week trial that he did not know about the secret Venezuelan contract while meeting Mr. Rivera. Republican Congressman Pete Sessions also testified at the trial, saying Rivera tried to persuade Nicolás Maduro to resign as Venezuela’s president in 2017 and hold elections.
Sessions said he did not know at the time that Rivera’s company had a $50 million contract with a company controlled by the Venezuelan government. Maduro and his wife were arrested by the US military in Caracas in January on drug charges and flown to New York, where they remain in custody. Both have maintained their innocence.
Prosecutors claim David Rivera was dishonest about Venezuela contract
During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Cruz told jurors that Rivera was not honest with the politicians he lobbied.
“His public image was anti-communist, but he had been working for the Maduro regime all along and knew it,” Cruz said.
Kurt Anderson is a policy and politics reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. Sign up for our free newsletter, Florida TODAY, to receive all of Florida’s best content straight to your inbox every weekday. https://tallahassee.com/newsletters.
