Ex-Florida congressman David Rivera convicted in secret Venezuela lobbying case

A federal jury in Miami found former Florida congressman David Rivera guilty of secretly lobbying U.S. officials for Venezuela without registering as a foreign agent, closing a six-week trial that pulled in some of the most sensitive names in Florida politics and U.S. foreign policy.

Jurors also convicted co-defendant Esther Nuhfer, and Judge Melissa Damian ordered Rivera taken into custody after the verdict. Prosecutors said Rivera and Nuhfer worked through a $50 million contract tied to the U.S. affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, and argued that Rivera was paid $20 million in a covert effort to shape Washington’s approach to Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The case turned on a 2017 lobbying push that prosecutors said was aimed at normalizing relations with Maduro’s government and easing U.S. sanctions. Rivera’s defense argued the work was commercial and intended to help bring Exxon back to Venezuela, not to aid Maduro. The jury rejected that explanation.

One of the most striking moments came from Marco Rubio, who testified that Rivera never told him he had a contract with Citgo when the two met in 2017 to talk about Venezuela. Rubio said it would have been “shocking” to learn Rivera was working for Maduro’s side. NBC News reported that Rubio also said Rivera discussed a plan to persuade Maduro to step down, and that Rivera and Nuhfer tried to arrange meetings in Dallas, New York, Washington and Caracas for Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez.

Rivera, a Republican who represented southern Florida in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2013, had pleaded not guilty. The conviction also follows earlier federal accusations that Rivera and Nuhfer failed to register as foreign agents and committed conspiracy, money laundering and tax-related offenses tied to the Venezuela work. In a separate 2024 indictment, prosecutors said Rivera received more than $5.5 million in another Venezuela-related scheme involving businessman Raúl Gorrín, and that shell companies were used to conceal the activity.

The verdict lands in a system designed to expose hidden foreign pressure. The Foreign Agents Registration Act, passed in 1938, requires certain agents of foreign principals to disclose their relationship, activities, receipts and disbursements. Rivera’s conviction shows that when prosecutors can trace payments, contracts, meetings and deliberate concealment, a covert influence campaign can finally surface in open court.