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A federal jury in Miami found Cuban-American former congressman David Rivera guilty on all counts he faced for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro and for money laundering, according to the verdict issued this Friday.
The verdict was unanimous and came after a five-week trial in which 14 people testified and thousands of documents, text messages, emails, and financial records were presented.
Rivera was convicted on seven counts: conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), violation of FARA, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts of transactions involving property derived from criminal activity.
Alongside him was sentenced his co-accused, the political consultant Esther Nuhfer, 51 years old, who faced four similar charges and was also found guilty on all of them.
The prosecution demonstrated that in 2017, Rivera and Nuhfer obtained a contract worth 50 million dollars with PDV USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, to promote the interests of Maduro's regime in the United States without registering with the Department of Justice.
The scheme operated between 2017 and 2018, during the first few months of Donald Trump’s first term, a time when the Maduro regime sought relief from U.S. sanctions and aimed to improve its image in Washington.
The prosecutor Roger Cruz was emphatic in his arguments: "They chose to keep their relationship with the Maduro regime a secret," he stated during the closing arguments. In the final rebuttal, he added: "The facts speak for themselves that these two defendants are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
Rivera used approximately 600,000 dollars from contract funds to finance his unsuccessful campaign for the Florida state legislature in 2018 and for personal expenses.
Nuhfer, for his part, allocated about $455,000 to purchase a residence in Key Colony Beach, Florida.
Among the actions of the scheme was the organization of meetings between Venezuelan officials —including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez— and U.S. lawmakers such as then-Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Pete Sessions.
Rubio himself testified during the trial as a longtime friend and ally of Rivera. Prosecutor Cruz stated that "Marco Rubio was used by these two to make money."
Rivera, 60 years old, is the son of Cuban exiles who fled after Fidel Castro's revolution and has historically declared himself a staunch opponent of communist and socialist regimes in Latin America, making his conviction for working for the Maduro regime a major political paradox.
He was a state legislator in Florida from 2002 to 2010 and a federal congressman for District 25 from 2011 to 2013.
Rivera was arrested in December 2022 under a federal criminal investigation in Miami, and his trial began in March 2026. The links to PDVSA became public since May 2020, when the million-dollar contract was revealed.
In 2021, Rivera was fined $456,000 in connection with previous irregularities.
After the verdict, Rivera was immediately detained as he was considered a flight risk. The total amount subject to forfeiture amounts to 20 million dollars.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement asserting, "The verdict sends a clear message: our democratic processes are not for sale." Sentencing is scheduled for July 22, 2026; Rivera faces up to 60 years in prison and Nuhfer up to 30.
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