Former GOP congressman and longtime Rubio friend sentenced to 10 years for secret Venezuela lobbying

Marco Bello/Reuters/File

A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration.

Republican David Rivera has been jailed since jurors found him guilty in May on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of his work for former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Rivera, 61, appeared stone-faced as Judge Melissa Damian denounced him for betraying his life’s mission, saying he would surely have been judged harshly by his many friends had the millions of dollars come from the Cuban regime instead of its allies in Caracas.

“Nobody would accept that’s ok and I don’t think this is different,” the judge said. “There’s no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime.”

The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping US policy toward Latin America, highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for both anti-communist crusaders and corruption among its sizable exile population.

It included testimony from President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified they felt betrayed when learning of Rivera’s mammoth consulting contract with a US-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

Attorneys for Rivera plan to appeal and in June applied for a presidential pardon. Rivera faces additional federal charges in Washington, DC, in a related foreign lobbying case.

In an indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard line and crippling sanctions on Venezuela.

As part of the charm offensive, Rivera and a co-defendant, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, sought to manipulate influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions. Their goal was to normalize relations with the new Trump administration even as the Maduro government faced sanctions over serious accusations of human rights violations.

But Rivera and Nuhfer didn’t disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera’s political career as an anti-communist stalwart, prosecutors argued at trial.

“The United States and the public were the true victims of this fraud,” Assistant US Attorney Roger Cruz said in urging a stiff sentence. “He used his position of trust — and betrayed it consistently and repeatedly.”

To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also set up an encrypted chat group called MIA — for Miami — with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who was subsequently charged in the US with bribing top Venezuelan officials.

Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the “bus driver,” Sessions “Sombrero,” Rodríguez “The Lady in Red,” and their windfall payments “La Luz,” Spanish for “The Light,” according to copies of text messages presented to the jury. Rubio was known as “Miss Clairol,” because rubio means blond in Spanish.

At Friday’s sentencing, attorneys for Rivera repeated their trial argument that the former congressman believed he was under no requirement to disclose the work. The three-month, $50 million contract with Rivera’s one-man consulting firm, they said, was focused on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“David Rivera does not deserve to die in prison because he failed to file a FARA registration,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said at Friday’s hearing. “If he had filed that paper, that form, everything he did, including the $50 million contract, which totally distorted this case, is perfectly legal.”

Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera’s meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which were focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the US – not supporting Maduro in normalizing relations with the US.

“There’s not one word in any chat, not one document, not one thing he did to help Nicolás Maduro,” said Shohat.

Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with the affiliate, New York-based PDV USA, as cover for illegal lobbying.

“This is a classic money laundering case,” the judge said Friday in rejecting Rivera’s motion to lower the federal guidelines range.

The partners tried to hide the work — backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements, like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorrín’s luxury yacht, prosecutors said.

The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodríguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, Rivera roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodríguez with the ExxonMobil executive who took over as CEO when Rex Tillerson became Trump’s first-term secretary of state. After a secret meeting in Caracas with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.

The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro and labeled him a “dictator,” launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat the president.

And now, nearly a decade later, Rodríguez has emerged as the second Trump administration’s trusted partner after the US military’s ousting of Maduro.

Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator and shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became the Florida House speaker.

Rivera faced earlier controversy, including allegations that he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped that case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated — but never charged — for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida Legislature.

Despite all that, Rivera remains popular among Miami’s Cuban American establishment.

Friends of the former congressman, including the former president of Florida International University and Miami-Dade County’s supervisor of elections, packed the courtroom to show their support.

Sessions, in a letter seeking leniency that was read into the record by his chief of staff, said his former congressional colleague devoted decades to public service, much of it focused on defending liberty and democracy.

“I don’t think it’s productive for society by sending David away for a long, long time,” testified Liliana Ros, a longtime Miami GOP committee member.

马可·贝洛/路透社/档案照片

一位前迈阿密国会议员、美国国务卿马可·卢比奥的长期好友，周五被判处 10 年监禁，罪名是与特朗普第一任期内代表委内瑞拉进行的一项秘密游说活动有关，该活动耗资 5000 万美元。

共和党人戴维·里维拉自 5 月份被陪审团裁定所有罪名成立以来一直被监禁，这些罪名包括未注册为外国代理人以及串谋洗钱，而他为委内瑞拉前总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗政府工作期间犯有这些罪行。

61岁的里维拉面无表情，法官梅丽莎·达米安谴责他背叛了毕生的使命，并表示如果这数百万美元来自古巴政权而不是其在加拉加斯的盟友，他的许多朋友肯定会严厉地评判他。

“没有人会接受这种做法，我认为这次也不例外，”法官说。“毫无疑问，这笔钱来自马杜罗政权。”

为期七周的审判罕见地揭示了迈阿密作为外国影响力运动十字路口的角色，这些运动旨在影响美国对拉丁美洲的政策，凸显了该市作为反共十字军和其庞大流亡人口中腐败的磁石的声誉。

证词包括唐纳德·特朗普总统的国务卿、德克萨斯州众议员皮特·塞申斯和一位华盛顿顶级说客——他们都作证说，当得知里维拉与委内瑞拉国家石油公司 (PDVSA) 的一家美国子公司签订了巨额咨询合同时，他们感到被背叛了。

里维拉的律师计划提起上诉，并于6月申请了总统赦免。里维拉在华盛顿特区还面临与此相关的外国游说案的联邦指控。

在 2022 年公布的一份起诉书中，检察官指控里维拉受时任委内瑞拉外交部长德尔西·罗德里格斯（现任委内瑞拉代理总统）的指派，利用共和党人的关系，让特朗普第一届政府放弃对委内瑞拉的强硬路线和严厉制裁。

作为魅力攻势的一部分，里维拉和另一位被告、政治顾问埃丝特·努弗试图操纵包括卢比奥和塞申斯在内的有影响力的朋友。他们的目标是在马杜罗政府因严重侵犯人权的指控而面临制裁的情况下，与新上任的特朗普政府实现关系正常化。

但检察官在审判中辩称，里维拉和努弗没有按规定披露他们的游说工作，因为他们担心这会终结里维拉作为反共坚定支持者的政治生涯。

“美国和公众才是这起欺诈案真正的受害者，”美国助理检察官罗杰·克鲁兹在敦促判处重刑时说道。“他滥用了信任，并且一再背叛了这份信任。”

检察官指控，为了掩盖自己的工作，里维拉还建立了一个名为 MIA（迈阿密的缩写）的加密聊天群组，其主要联系人是委内瑞拉媒体大亨劳尔·戈林，后者随后在美国被指控贿赂委内瑞拉高级官员。

该团伙成员使用一些有趣的暗语来讨论他们的活动：马杜罗是“巴士司机”，塞申斯是“墨西哥帽”，罗德里格斯是“红衣女郎”，他们的意外之财被称为“La Luz”，在西班牙语中意为“光”，这是提交给陪审团的短信副本显示。鲁比奥被称为“Clairol小姐”，因为在西班牙语中，rubio是金发女郎的意思。

在周五的量刑听证会上，里维拉的律师重申了他们在审判中的论点，即这位前国会议员认为自己没有义务披露这项工作。他们表示，里维拉与他一人咨询公司签订的这份为期三个月、价值5000万美元的合同，旨在吸引石油巨头埃克森美孚重返委内瑞拉——这项商业工作通常不受《外国代理人登记法》的约束。

“大卫·里维拉不应该因为没有提交《外国代理人登记法》（FARA）登记而被判终身监禁，”辩护律师埃德·肖哈特在周五的听证会上说。“如果他提交了那份文件、那份表格，那么他所做的一切，包括那份彻底扭曲此案的5000万美元合同，都是完全合法的。”

他们说，里维拉与卢比奥和塞申斯的会面与那项咨询工作完全不同，这些会面的重点是为委内瑞拉引入一个对美国不那么敌视的领导层，而不是支持马杜罗与美国实现关系正常化。

“在任何聊天记录、任何文件、任何事中，他都没有帮助过尼古拉斯·马杜罗，”肖哈特说。

检察官称，里维拉利用与总部位于纽约的附属公司 PDV USA 签订的合同，掩盖其非法游说活动。

“这是一起典型的洗钱案件，”法官周五驳回了里维拉降低联邦量刑指南范围的动议时说道。

检察官称，合伙人试图掩盖其犯罪行为——篡改文件日期并炮制虚假协议，例如伪造协议，以证明向一家负责维护戈林豪华游艇的南佛罗里达公司汇款 375 万美元是合理的。

政治活动包括安排罗德里格斯在纽约、加拉加斯、华盛顿和达拉斯会面。作为这项工作的一部分，里维拉拉拢了塞申斯，后者后来试图促成罗德里格斯与埃克森美孚首席执行官马杜罗会面。马杜罗在雷克斯·蒂勒森出任特朗普第一任期国务卿后接任埃克森美孚首席执行官一职。在加拉加斯与马杜罗秘密会面后，塞申斯还同意将委内瑞拉总统的一封信转交给特朗普。

然而，这种接触很快就瓦解了。特朗普上任不到六个月，就对马杜罗实施制裁，并称他为“独裁者”，同时发起了一场旨在推翻马杜罗总统的“极限施压”运动。

而现在，将近十年过去了，继美国军方推翻马杜罗政权之后，罗德里格斯已成为特朗普政府的第二位值得信赖的合作伙伴。

在 2010 年当选国会议员之前，里维拉是佛罗里达州的高级立法者，曾与后来成为佛罗里达州众议院议长的卢比奥在塔拉哈西合住一处住宅。

里维拉此前曾面临争议，包括被指控在2012年的国会选举中秘密资助一位民主党搅局者候选人。去年，联邦检察官撤销了此案，此前一家上诉法院推翻了下级法院判处的巨额罚款。里维拉在担任佛罗里达州议员期间，还曾因涉嫌违反竞选财务规定以及与一家博彩公司签订价值100万美元的合同而接受调查，但最终未被起诉。

尽管如此，里维拉在迈阿密的古巴裔美国人圈子里仍然很受欢迎。

这位前国会议员的朋友们，包括佛罗里达国际大学前校长和迈阿密-戴德县选举主管，挤满了法庭以示支持。

塞申斯在一封请求宽恕的信中（这封信由他的幕僚长宣读并记录在案）表示，他这位前国会同事数十年来致力于公共服务，其中大部分精力都集中在捍卫自由和民主上。

“我认为把大卫长期监禁对社会没有好处，”迈阿密共和党委员会长期成员莉莉安娜·罗斯作证说。