Former Member of Congress Charged with Acting as an Unregistered Agent of a Venezuelan National

 

David Rivera Allegedly Received Over $5M for Efforts to Lobby Executive Branch Officials and Laundered Criminal Proceeds

A grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment yesterday charging David Rivera, 59, of Miami, with a scheme to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and to launder funds to conceal and promote his criminal conduct.

As alleged in the indictment, from in or about June 2019 through in or about April 2020, Rivera carried out a scheme to provide consulting and lobbying services to sanctioned Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrín, who was added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) on Jan. 8, 2019, by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

On Gorrín’s behalf, Rivera sought to lobby U.S. government officials, including a senior official in the Executive Branch of the U.S. government (Government Official-1), to have Gorrín removed from the SDN List. Rivera received over $5.5 million for these activities and willfully failed to register under FARA, as required by law.

To conceal and promote his criminal activities, Rivera created fraudulent shell companies using names associated with a law firm and with Government Official-1 to give the false appearance that the shell companies were legitimate. In reality, these entities were not affiliated with the law firm or Government Official-1, and neither the law firm nor Government Official-1 were aware that Rivera had created shell companies in their names. Rivera used the money he received from his criminal activities to pay individuals who assisted him in his efforts to lobby senior government officials on Gorrín’s behalf, including by making payments through one of the shell companies.

The FBI Miami Field Office is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Sean O’Dowd and Monica Svetoslavov of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.