Former Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was indicted Tuesday on prices that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act and laundered funds in an effort to “conceal and promote his prison conduct,” the Justice Department mentioned on Wednesday.
In the indictment, Rivera is accused of working “as an agent” of Raul Gorrín Belisario, a Venezuelan nationwide who the Treasury Department mentioned performed a task in a “corruption scheme” to bribe the nationwide treasurer of Venezuela.
Rivera “sought to foyer senior U.S. authorities officers” on Gorrín’s behalf, making an attempt to have Gorrín faraway from an inventory he was positioned on due to the alleged bribery, in keeping with the indictment returned by the grand jury.
Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), anybody who has agreed to work in a sure capability for a overseas authorities’s curiosity, both by means of the federal government itself or an middleman, should register with the U.S. authorities.
The indictment additionally alleges that Rivera created shell firms “to hide and promote his crimes.” The alleged scheme came about in 2019 and 2020, in keeping with the indictment.
The FBI Miami Field Office, which the DOJ mentioned is investigating the case, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Wednesday evening. An legal professional for Rivera additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Rivera was previously arrested and indicted in 2022. Prosecutors alleged in that case that Rivera tried to “act and trigger others to behave within the United States as an agent of a overseas principal,” referring to the Venezuelan authorities, with out registering with the U.S. authorities.
The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that Rivera in an announcement referred to the assorted FARA allegations as “false,” arguing that Tuesday’s indictment was “simply one other politicized indictment towards a Republican, proper earlier than the Trump administration brings again sanity and equity to this weaponization of the justice system.”
Rivera served in Congress from 2011 to 2013.
