Former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison after being convicted on charges tied to foreign lobbying and money laundering involving a Venezuelan state oil affiliate.
U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian sentenced Rivera to 120 months in prison on five counts and 60 months on two additional counts.
The sentences will run concurrently.
Rivera was also ordered to serve one year of supervised release after completing his prison term.
The judge imposed no fine but ordered him to pay a mandatory $700 special assessment.
Rivera, 61, has remained in custody since a federal jury returned its verdict in May 2026.
His attorneys have said they plan to appeal the conviction.
The defense also applied for a presidential pardon in June.
Rivera’s co-defendant, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, was sentenced in August to five years in prison.
A separate foreign-lobbying case involving Rivera also remains pending in Washington, D.C.
The criminal case centered on a March 2017 consulting agreement between Rivera’s company, Interamerican Consulting, and PDV USA.
PDV USA was a U.S. affiliate of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.
The consulting agreement was valued at $50 million for approximately three months of work.
Prosecutors said Rivera’s firm ultimately received $20 million through four separate payments of $5 million each.
Three of those payments allegedly came from PDV USA in March and April 2017.
A fourth payment reportedly came from PDVSA through Russia’s Gazprom Bank in October 2017.
Federal prosecutors argued that Rivera and Nuhfer used the arrangement to lobby American government officials in 2017 and 2018 without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, per Trending Politics.
According to the government’s case, then-Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez sought their assistance in lobbying the first Trump administration and members of Congress.
Prosecutors alleged the effort was aimed at easing U.S. sanctions and encouraging movement toward normalized relations with the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Evidence presented during the trial included outreach to then-Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas.
Rubio and Rivera had previously been longtime friends and housemates.
Both Rubio and Sessions testified that they had not been informed about Rivera’s oil-company consulting agreement.
A federal jury in Miami convicted Rivera and Nuhfer on all counts after a seven-week trial.
Those charges included conspiracy related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
They were also convicted on charges involving transactions with proceeds from unlawful activity.
Prosecutors accused Rivera and Nuhfer of attempting to conceal the work.
The government said the pair used backdated documents and sham agreements as part of that effort.
Prosecutors also pointed to encrypted communications that allegedly used code names when discussing officials and payments.
The government argued that disclosure of Rivera’s work would have conflicted with his public reputation as an opponent of the governments in Venezuela and Cuba.
Rivera’s defense attorneys disputed the prosecution’s characterization of the agreement.
They argued that Rivera’s work involved commercial efforts aimed at bringing ExxonMobil back into Venezuela.
The defense maintained that such activity would generally be exempt from foreign-agent registration requirements.
Attorneys also said Rivera’s meetings with U.S. officials were intended to promote political change inside Venezuela rather than support Maduro’s government.
The defense argued that the underlying activity would have been lawful if Rivera had simply filed the required registration paperwork.
Judge Damian rejected that characterization during sentencing.
She said the money originated from the Maduro government and described the conduct as involving financial gain and concealment from Rivera’s own political allies.
Rivera served as a Republican member of the Florida House from 2002 until 2010.
He later represented Florida’s 25th Congressional District in the U.S. House from 2011 until 2013.
His federal conviction now sends the former congressman to prison for a decade, although his legal team has made clear that the case is not finished.
An appeal is expected, while the separate foreign-lobbying matter in Washington remains unresolved.
