FLORIDA MAN

Ex-GOP Congressman David Rivera Arrested for Secret Venezuelan Contract

Feds allege ex-Florida Rep. David Rivera had been hired by the South American country to promote increased relations between the two countries—and kept the arrangement a secret.

A former Republican congressman from Florida was arrested Monday by federal authorities and charged with conspiracy, failure to register as a foreign agent and a host of other crimes, officials said. The accusations stem from a secret contract Rep. David Rivera – who represented parts of Miami in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 – had inked with an American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company, according to The New York Times. The $50 million deal, which ran from 2017-2018, included an agreement to promote a thaw in relations between the U.S. and Venezuela—something Rivera allegedly never disclosed to the Justice Department, which is required under federal law. The Cuban-American and strident anti-communist was taken into custody at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta Monday. A longtime associate, Esther Nuhfer, was also indicted as a result of the deal.