A former Miami congressman who has long been close with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a 10-year prison sentence on Friday for his involvement in an undisclosed $50 million lobbying initiative for Venezuela during the initial Trump administration.
David Rivera, a Republican, has remained behind bars since a jury convicted him in May on every count, which encompassed failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering through his efforts on behalf of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.
The 61-year-old Rivera remained expressionless while Judge Melissa Damian admonished him for abandoning his lifelong principles, remarking that his numerous friends would have condemned him severely had these millions originated from the Cuban government rather than 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."
Spanning seven weeks, the trial provided an uncommon look into Miami's position as an intersection for foreign influence operations designed to sway U.S. policy in Latin America, underscoring the city's standing as a hub for both anti-communist advocates and corrupt practices within its large exile community.
Proceedings featured testimony from President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, and a prominent Washington lobbyist, all of whom recounted feeling betrayed upon discovering Rivera's massive consulting arrangement with an American affiliate of PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil enterprise.
Defense lawyers for Rivera intend to appeal and submitted a request for a presidential pardon in June.
Meanwhile, Rivera has other federal counts in Washington, D.C., connected to another foreign lobbying matter.
According to a 2022 indictment, prosecutors asserted that Rivera was approached by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, currently serving as Venezuela’s acting president, to leverage his Republican network so the first Trump administration might step back from its aggressive stance and severe sanctions against Venezuela.
As part of this push, Rivera, along with co-defendant and political consultant Esther Nuhfer, attempted to influence well-connected associates, such as Rubio and Sessions.
They aimed to mend ties with the incoming Trump administration, even while the Maduro regime was under sanction for grave alleged human rights abuses.
Prosecutors argued during trial that Rivera and Nuhfer failed to register their lobbying activities as legally mandated because revealing the work would have destroyed Rivera's political standing as a staunch anti-communist.
"The United States and the public were the true victims of this fraud," Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Cruz said in urging a stiff sentence. "He used his position of trust — and betrayed it consistently and repeatedly."
To conceal his actions, prosecutors alleged, Rivera created an encrypted group chat titled MIA, shorthand for Miami, to communicate with his primary contact inside the Maduro government: Venezuelan media mogul Raúl Gorrín, who was later indicted in the U.S. for allegedly bribing senior Venezuelan officials.
Text message evidence shown to jurors revealed that participants in the chat used coded pseudonyms to describe their operations: Maduro was referred to as the "bus driver," Sessions as "Sombrero," Rodríguez as "The Lady in Red," and their lucrative payouts as "La Luz," the Spanish phrase for "The Light."
Rubio was assigned the moniker "Miss Clairol," derived from the Spanish word rubio meaning blond.
During the sentencing hearing on Friday, Rivera's legal counsel reiterated their trial defense that the former congressman assumed he was not obligated to report his activities.
They maintained that the three-month, $50 million agreement with his single-person firm centered on enticing oil corporation ExxonMobil to return to Venezuela, an endeavor categorized as commercial and typically exempt under 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."
Separate from that consulting arrangement, the defense asserted, were Rivera's interactions with Rubio and Sessions, which were intended to encourage a leadership shift in Venezuela toward a government less antagonistic to the U.S., rather than assisting Maduro in establishing normal diplomatic ties.
"There’s not one word in any chat, not one document, not one thing he did to help Nicolás Maduro," said Shohat.
Prosecution lawyers maintained that Rivera utilized the agreement with the New York-based subsidiary, PDV USA, as a front for unlawful foreign influence work.
"This is a classic money laundering case," the judge said Friday in rejecting Rivera’s motion to lower the federal guidelines range.
According to prosecutors, the associates attempted to conceal their enterprise by backdating paperwork and creating fraudulent contracts, including one executed to justify transferring $3.75 million to a South Florida firm responsible for maintaining Gorrín's luxury yacht.
Their political efforts encompassed arranging appointments for Rodríguez across New York, Caracas, Washington, and Dallas. In doing so, Rivera involved Sessions, who subsequently attempted to arrange a discussion between Rodríguez and the ExxonMobil executive succeeding Rex Tillerson after Tillerson became Trump’s first-term secretary of state.
Following a covert meeting with Maduro in Caracas, Sessions additionally agreed to convey a message from the Venezuelan president directly to Trump.
However, the initiative rapidly fell apart. Within six months of entering office, Trump imposed sanctions on Maduro, designated him a "dictator," and initiated a "maximum pressure" strategy intended to remove him from power.
Today, nearly ten years on, Rodríguez has become a reliable partner for the second Trump administration following the removal of Maduro by the U.S. military.
Prior to winning election to Congress in 2010, Rivera served as a prominent Florida state lawmaker and shared a residence in Tallahassee with Rubio, who later went on to serve as Florida House speaker.
Rivera had previously encountered controversy, such as claims that he covertly financed a Democratic spoiler candidate during a 2012 congressional campaign.
Federal prosecutors dismissed that matter last year after an appellate court invalidated a substantial fine handed down by a lower court. Rivera was likewise scrutinized — though never charged — over potential campaign finance infractions and a $1 million deal with a gaming company during his tenure in the Florida Legislature.
Regardless of these troubles, Rivera continues to hold support within Miami's Cuban American establishment.
Supporters of the former congressman, among them the former president of Florida International University and Miami-Dade County’s supervisor of elections, filled the courtroom to demonstrate their backing.
In a letter advocating for leniency read into the record by his chief of staff, Sessions stated that his former congressional colleague spent decades in public service, primarily devoted to protecting freedom 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.
