DOJ: Former Congress Member Illegally Lobbied for Sanctioned Venezuelan Businessman
David Rivera, a former Republican member of Congress from Florida, was charged this week with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act after he allegedly failed to report receiving millions of dollars in exchange for lobbying the Trump administration to remove sanctions on a Venezuelan businessman.
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DOJ said Rivera, who served in the House for one term from 2011 to 2013, provided consulting and lobbying services in 2019 and 2020 to Raul Gorrin, who the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated in January 2019 for allegedly bribing Venezuelan officials. OFAC also said Gorrin hid more than $1 billion in embezzled Venezuelan government funds in the U.S.
Rivera was paid $5.5 million to try to get Gorrin removed from the Specially Designated Nationals List, DOJ said, including by lobbying an unnamed senior official in the U.S. executive branch. The agency alleged Rivera “willfully failed” to register those activities under FARA “as required by law.”
DOJ also said Rivera set up shell companies using names associated with a law firm and with the unnamed U.S. government official to “give the false appearance that the shell companies were legitimate,” but both the law firm and the government official didn’t know about this. Rivera used the shell companies to pay people to help him lobby on behalf of Gorrin, DOJ said.
Rivera was previously arrested and indicted on similar charges in 2022 for his involvement in a secret campaign by the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in Venezuela to win favor with the first Trump administration, according to the Associated Press. Rivera has denied illegally lobbying on behalf of the Venezuelan government, the AP reported.