October 02, 2026
Ex-Congressman David Rivera Sentenced to 10 Years for Secretly Lobbying for Venezuela
Headline card by The Night Desk
Former U.S. Congressman David Rivera was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for illegally lobbying U.S. officials to ease pressure on ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.
Rivera, 61, a Republican who represented southern Florida in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2013, was convicted at trial in May of working on Venezuela's behalf in 2017 without registering as a foreign lobbyist, as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian handed down the sentence at a hearing in federal court in Miami.
Prosecutors with the Miami U.S. Attorney's office had urged a "significant term of incarceration." They said Rivera acted on behalf of a "hostile foreign government" — and was paid $20 million by the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company.
Rivera pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argued he should be spared prison time. Their defense: he wasn't helping Maduro's government at all, but working to help Venezuela's opposition remove Maduro from power.
He was charged in 2022, during the Biden administration — and his defense noted that President Trump has deemphasized FARA prosecutions since taking office in January 2025.
The ten-year sentence lands as one of the stiffest FARA punishments in recent memory — a reminder that Washington's influence game has a registration form, and skipping it can cost you a decade.
The Graveyard Crew question: Should foreign lobbying be a 10-year crime — or is that overkill for what's essentially paperwork fraud with political flavor? Sound off below.
Source: Reuters — read the original report
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