Former Florida congressman David Rivera, a Republican who represented South Florida in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2013, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison for secretly lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of Venezuela's Maduro government in 2017 without registering as a foreign agent, plus conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Rivera, 61, a longtime friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was convicted on all counts in May after a seven-week trial. He appeared stone-faced in court and has been jailed since the verdict.
U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian denounced Rivera for betraying his life's mission as an anti-communist crusader, saying his many friends would surely have judged him harshly had the millions come from the Cuban regime rather than its allies in Caracas.
"Nobody would accept that's ok and I don't think this is different," Damian said. "There's no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime."
Prosecutors had urged more than 20 years, saying Rivera acted for a "hostile foreign government" and was paid $20 million by the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA. The defense asked for no more than a year, arguing Rivera had actually been working to help Venezuela's opposition remove Maduro — and noting he was charged in 2022 under President Biden while President Trump has deemphasized FARA cases since taking office.
The trial exposed a rare look inside a $50 million secret lobbying campaign, run with political consultant Esther Nuhfer — herself sentenced to five years in August — aimed at persuading the Trump administration in its first term to ease pressure on Venezuela. The pair used an encrypted chat group to communicate with Venezuelan officials, with coded figures dubbed "Sombrero" and "Miss Clairol."
The witness list was striking: Rubio, Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, and a top Washington lobbyist all testified that they felt betrayed upon learning of Rivera's mammoth consulting contract with a U.S.-based PDVSA affiliate.
For Miami's Cuban exile community, the sentence carries weight. "In South Florida, where so many families fled communist oppression, that kind of betrayal carries real weight," said U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones. For FARA enforcement, it is one of the heaviest sentences in recent years — a former congressman getting a decade behind bars draws a line for every shadow lobbyist.
Rivera's attorneys plan to appeal and applied for a presidential pardon in June. He also faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case. Whether the 10-year sentence is the end — or the start of another legal fight — now depends on the appeals court and on whether the White House reaches for the pardon pen.