
Former Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was indicted Tuesday on charges that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act and laundered funds to “conceal and promote his criminal conduct,” the Justice Department said Wednesday.
The indictment accuses Rivera of working “as an agent” of Raul Gorrín Belisario, a Venezuelan national who the Treasury Department said played a role in a “corruption scheme” to bribe the national treasurer of Venezuela.
Rivera “sought to lobby senior U.S. government officials” on Gorrín’s behalf, attempting to have Gorrín removed from a list he was placed on because of the allegations of bribery, according to the grand jury indictment.
Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, anyone who has agreed to work in a certain capacity for a foreign government’s interest, through either the government itself or an intermediary, must register with the U.S. government.
The indictment also alleges that Rivera created shell companies “to conceal and promote his crimes.” The alleged scheme took place in 2019 and 2020, according to the indictment.
The FBI’s Miami Field Office, which the Justice Department said is investigating the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night. Neither did an attorney for Rivera.
A spokesperson for the Justice Dept. declined when NBC News asked if the case’s prosecutors would like to provide further comment.
Rivera was previously arrested and indicted in 2022. Prosecutors alleged in that case that he tried to “act and cause others to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign principal,” referring to the Venezuelan government, without registering with the U.S. government.
The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that Rivera referred to the various allegations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as “false,” arguing in a statement that Tuesday’s indictment was “just another politicized indictment against a Republican, right before the Trump administration brings back sanity and fairness to this weaponization of the justice system.”
Rivera served in Congress from 2011 to 2013.