Ex-GOP Congressman Sentenced To Prison

Former U.S. Representative David Rivera was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of failing to register as a foreign agent and of money-laundering offenses tied to payments from a Venezuelan state oil affiliate.

U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian imposed 120 months on five counts and 60 months on two others, with the terms to run concurrently. She also ordered one year of supervised release, no fine, and a $700 mandatory special assessment.

Rivera, 61, has been in custody since the May 2026 verdict. His co-defendant, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, was sentenced in August to five years. Defense counsel said they will appeal and, in June, applied for a presidential pardon.

A related foreign-lobbying case remains pending in Washington D.C. as of this report.

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Former GOP Rep. David Rivera sentenced to 10 years in prison for secret Venezuela lobbying https://t.co/zYr1CnPoE0 pic.twitter.com/x4gDZWomDl

— New York Post (@nypost) October 3, 2026

The case centered on a March 2017 consulting agreement between Rivera’s firm, Interamerican Consulting, and PDV USA, a U.S. affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. The contract was valued at $50 million for about three months of work.

Prosecutors said the firm received $20 million in four payments of $5 million, three from PDV USA in March and April 2017 and a fourth from PDVSA through Russia’s Gazprom Bank in October 2017.

According to the government, Rivera and Nuhfer used that arrangement to lobby U.S. officials in 2017 and 2018 without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutors alleged that then-Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, now Venezuela’s acting president, sought their help in pressing the first Trump Administration and members of Congress to ease sanctions and move toward normalized relations with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Outreach described at trial included contacts with then-Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Pete Sessions of Texas. Rubio, a longtime friend and former housemate of Rivera’s, and Sessions both testified that they had not been told of the oil-company contract.

A federal jury in Miami found Rivera and Nuhfer guilty on all counts after a seven-week trial. The counts included conspiracy related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activity.

Prosecutors said the defendants concealed the work by backdating documents and using sham agreements, and that encrypted messages used code names for officials and payments. They argued that disclosure would have conflicted with Rivera’s public record as an opponent of the governments in Havana and Caracas.

The defense maintained that the contract concerned commercial efforts to bring ExxonMobil back to Venezuela, activity it said was generally exempt from registration, and that Rivera’s meetings with U.S. officials were aimed at encouraging a change in Venezuelan leadership rather than supporting Maduro. Counsel argued that the conduct would have been lawful had a registration form been filed.

Judge Damian rejected that account at sentencing, stating that the money came from the Maduro government and describing the offense in terms of financial gain and concealment from political allies.

Rivera, a Republican, served in the Florida House from 2002 to 2010 and represented Florida’s 25th Congressional District from 2011 to 2013

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