Ex-Congressman Rivera Convicted in $50M Secret Venezuela Lobbying Case

A federal jury in Miami convicted former Republican Congressman David Rivera on Friday on all counts in a case alleging he secretly lobbied for Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro government during the first Trump administration — a verdict with direct implications for Florida's senior U.S. senator and current Secretary of State.

Jurors found Rivera and political consultant Esther Nuhfer guilty on charges including failure to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering, prosecutors said. The conviction stems from an alleged three-month, $50 million contract with PDV USA, a New York-based affiliate of Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA.

For Treasure Coast residents, the verdict carries weight beyond Miami. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., now serving as U.S. Secretary of State, testified during the seven-week trial that he was shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera's consulting arrangement. Rubio and Rivera are longtime friends who once shared a Tallahassee home when both served in the Florida legislature. Rubio later became Florida House speaker.

Prosecutors said Rivera's influence operation used Rubio and Texas Rep. Pete Sessions as unwitting leverage — "pawns on a chess board" — to persuade the first Trump administration to ease sanctions on Caracas.

Prosecutors alleged Rivera's team used an encrypted chat group dubbed "MIA" — for Miami — to coordinate with Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, later charged separately with bribing Venezuelan officials. Code names kept the scheme under wraps: Maduro was the "bus driver," Sessions was "Sombrero," and millions of dollars were "melons," according to text messages presented to jurors.

Rivera's attorney, Ed Shohat, argued his client was working to oust Maduro, not normalize ties with him. "There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations," Shohat said in closing arguments. Nuhfer's attorney compared the government's case to the Salem witch trials, saying prosecutors presumed ill intent from the flimsiest evidence.

Rivera, elected to Congress in 2010, has a long history of controversy, including allegations he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. A federal case over that matter was dropped last year after an appeals court threw out a lower court's fine. He was also investigated, but never charged, for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company during his time in the Florida legislature.

Sentencing dates for Rivera and Nuhfer had not been announced as of Friday.

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