Former US Congressman David Rivera Sentenced to 10 Years in Venezuela Lobbying Case

David Rivera, a former Republican congressman from Florida, was sentenced on Friday 2 October 2026 to 10 years in federal prison for secretly lobbying on behalf of the Venezuelan government, according to CBS News Miami. A jury convicted him in May on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Case

Prosecutors said Rivera and political consultant Esther Nuhfer, who was tried alongside him and also found guilty on all counts, secretly worked on behalf of the government of Nicolás Maduro from 2017 to 2018 under a multimillion-dollar contract signed with Rivera’s company. According to CBS, the contract was a consulting contract with a US-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Prosecutors alleged that Venezuela’s then foreign minister, Delcy Rodríguez, recruited Rivera to use Republican connections from his time in Congress to persuade the Trump administration to soften its stance toward Venezuela and ease sanctions, and said Rivera and Nuhfer sought to influence prominent political figures, including Marco Rubio and Texas Congressman Pete Sessions.

CBS reported that Rivera had faced a maximum possible statutory sentence of up to 60 years and that properties he owned in Doral and the Florida Keys will be forfeited to the government.

The Defence and the Prosecution

The defence argued that Rivera acted in good faith and believed his work did not have to be disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, saying the three-month, $50 million contract involved commercial efforts to bring ExxonMobil back to Venezuela, work it described as generally exempt from foreign-agent registration requirements. US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said the case was “not some paperwork violation, or a simple mistake”, according to CBS.

Why It Matters

The case turned on a question of disclosure: whether work aimed at influencing US policymakers had to be declared as work for a foreign government. The jury’s verdict and the length of the sentence show how the court treated that question in this case. CBS’s report does not say whether Rivera will appeal.