Ex-US congressman sentenced to 10 years in prison for $50m lobbying scheme

A former US congressman has been sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison for money laundering and working as an undeclared foreign agent.

David Rivera, 61, who was elected as a Florida Republican, was found guilty in May after a seven-week trial heard Venezuela's state-run oil company hired his consulting firm to lobby members of Congress to help improve US relations with Venezuela.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former housemate of Rivera, and Texas congressman Pete Sessions both testified to the court that they had no idea about his activities.

Defence lawyers had said the lobbying was for a US subsidiary of the oil company, not the Venezuelan government.

Rivera's associate, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, who was tried alongside him, was also found guilty in the case.

As a part of his sentence, Rivera, who served in Congress from 2011-13, must also forfeit his Florida properties.

Federal prosecutors in Florida said Rivera and Nuhfer engaged in a "secret political influence campaign", receiving a $50m (£37m) contract for three months of work on behalf of a US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, which is also known as Citgo.

Prosecutors alleged that, in 2017 and 2018, at the behest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government, Rivera and Nuhfer attempted to lobby Rubio - then still a senator and former housemate of Rivera - as well as Kellyanne Conway, a former senior White House adviser.

The lobbying came during a moment of tense relations between the US and Venezuela, during President Donald Trump's first term in the White House when his administration imposed sanctions on the South American country.

Defence lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer argued that the pair did not need to register as foreign agents because their contract was with a US-based subsidiary of a Venezuelan state company.

But Judge Melissa Damian said during Friday's sentencing: "There's no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime."

Rubio, who was not implicated in the wrongdoing, testified during the trial that he was close friends with Rivera but was unaware he was working as a lobbyist.