MIAMI — A federal judge on Tuesday compared the criminal roles of former Congressman David Rivera and political consultant Esther Nuhfer, both convicted in May of failing to register as foreign agents for the Venezuelan government under former socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

“I think this really was the David Rivera show,” U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian declared, describing Nuhfer’s role as minor. “I don’t see her as an equal partner to David Rivera.”

Nonetheless, Damian sentenced Nuhfer to five years in prison and ordered her to pay the U.S. government about $4.7 million, her share of a $20 million payment from the former Republican congressman’s consulting contract with an American subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company a decade ago. Nuhfer, whose sentencing hearing drew about 30 supporters, will be allowed to surrender in early October.

Nuhfer, 51, thanked her supporters, Jesus and her defense lawyers, David O. Markus and Margot Moss, in that order, saying in so many words that she plans to appeal her conviction on failing to register as a foreign agent with the U.S. government and related conspiracy and money laundering charges.

“We didn’t win, but in my book we won,” Nuhfer told the judge. “The fight is not done. ... I will prove my innocence.”

Rivera, 61, who has been held at the federal detention center in Miami since his trial with Nuhfer ended in early May, is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 29. His separate trial on tax-related charges in the foreign-agent case is set for Oct. 26. Meanwhile, both Rivera and Nuhfer have filed pardon petitions with the administration of President Donald Trump, according to the Department of Justice. No other details are available.

Rivera, the son of Cuban immigrants who rode the anti-communist wave of Miami’s exile community into a political career as a Florida legislator and member of Congress, was not in the courtroom on Tuesday. But the one-term congressman’s name kept popping up as the judge considered roles, national security issues and his original $50 million consulting contract with the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in 2017.

Damian noted that while Nuhfer played a minor role compared to Rivera’s, she was also the daughter of Cuban immigrants and “betrayed” her principles and the United States when she joined forces with the former congressman to use his Washington, D.C., contacts in a secret scheme to “normalize” relations with Maduro. Among those contacts: Former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio testified at their trial that he was completely unaware of Rivera’s consulting contract with the Venezuelan oil subsidiary, PDV USA, in Houston, when he agreed to meet with him a couple of times to discuss a plan for regime change in Venezuela.

Damian, the judge, said Nuhfer was motivated by greed when Rivera paid her almost $5 million for arranging introductions to wealthy Miami businessman Hugo Perera, who in turn introduced him to one of the richest men in Venezuela, Raul Gorrin, who had direct access to Maduro.

Those relationships led to Rivera’s landing the $50 million consulting contract with the Venezuelan oil subsidiary, but the Maduro government eventually cut him off after he failed to improve economic and political relations with the United States, including preventing sanctions against Venezuelan officials. By the end of 2017, the subsidiary paid $20 million to Rivera’s company, Interamerican Consulting, before revoking the contract.

“She’s the one that got the parties together,” said federal prosecutor Harold Schimkat, who worked on the foreign-agent case with colleague Roger Cruz. “She was the glue.”

Failing to register as a ‘foreign agent’

The outcome of her sentencing could have been much harsher. Initially, Nuhfer faced between 11 and 14 years in prison under proposed guidelines backed by prosecutors. Those guidelines were largely driven by her conviction on money laundering and conspiracy charges based on Rivera’s lucrative contract with the Venezuelan oil subsidiary. Then, after the judge evaluated certain factors, Damian reduced the guidelines to between 6-1/2 and 8 years.

Prosecutors agreed to a 6-1/2 year sentence. But Nuhfer’s defense team pushed for even less, including a probationary term with house arrest, saying she has generally lived a life of caring for others in her family and community.

“Her record of service to others is exceptional,” Moss told the judge, adding that Nuhfer has already suffered the collateral consequences of losing her business, reputation and right to vote as a convicted felon.

Damian, the judge, partly agreed, deciding to give Nuhfer a five-year sentence, which represents the maximum punishment for failing to register as a foreign agent.

In May, the federal jury found Rivera and Nuhfer guilty of breaking the foreign-agent registration law when they secretly worked on Venezuela’s behalf while they lobbied Rubio and other U.S. officials in 2017 and 2018. He was convicted on seven counts, and she was convicted on four charges. The jury reached the verdicts after a five-week trial with 14 witnesses, including Rubio, and thousands of records, such as text messages, emails and financial documents.

Both used their fees from the PDV USA contract to buy real estate in Florida. Rivera, who served between 2011 and 2013 in Congress, also used about $300,000 for his unsuccessful bid for a state representative seat in 2018, according to court records.

Lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer, who did not testify at their trial, attacked the government’s case, asserting that Rivera’s highly lucrative consulting contract was with a U.S. corporation even though it is a subsidiary of PDVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company; therefore, they did not have to register as foreign agents in the United States.

Perhaps more significant, the lawyers argued, Rivera and Nuhfer tried to promote the refinery business of the subsidiary, PDV USA, and reestablish business relations between Venezuela and the U.S. oil giant Exxon, whose assets were seized by Maduro’s predecessor. Their representation of a Venezuelan business did not require them to file papers under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a transparency law dating back to 1938, the lawyers claimed.

Moreover, the lawyers said, they interacted with Rubio, now the Trump administration’s secretary of state, and Texas Congressman Pete Sessions for one purpose: removing Maduro from power and replacing him with an opposition candidate in democratic elections in Venezuela. They sought to weaken Maduro, who faced economic sanctions along with other senior officials and Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA, the parent company of the U.S. subsidiary.

Prosecutors said Maduro and his foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, authorized a series of payments totaling $20 million under terms of the PDV USA contract before having a falling out with Rivera’s group by the end of 2017. Of that sum, Rivera paid about $5 million to Nuhfer, mainly for introducing him to Perera, who lived on exclusive Fisher Island. Rivera gave about $5 million to Perera for introducing him to Gorrin, who also had a home on the island. Rivera gave about $4 million to Gorrin for his access to Maduro and Rodriguez and gaining their approval for the contract. And Rivera kept about $5 million for himself.

‘Issues of mutual concern’

During the five-week trial, Rubio, Sessions and influential GOP lobbyist Brian Ballard testified. None said he knew about Rivera’s consulting contract with the Venezuelan oil subsidiary, PDV USA, until the company sued Rivera over allegations of doing little work in May 2020.

Sessions testified he agreed to meet on April 2, 2017, in New York City with Rivera, Rodriguez and others.

At their meeting, he said Rodriguez resisted the idea of regime change in Venezuela but urged him to consider bringing Exxon, the Dallas-based oil behemoth in his congressional district, back to the negotiating table with Venezuela. Exxon and Venezuela had a major legal battle after Maduro’s predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez, confiscated the company’s assets in the South American country.

The gatherings set the groundwork for Sessions to act as an “intermediary” between the U.S. government and Maduro’s socialist regime during the first Trump administration.

But Sessions testified that Exxon’s lawyers refused to negotiate directly with senior Venezuelan officials to resolve their legal dispute, which was going through arbitration in the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, little progress was being made in the parallel effort to promote democratic elections in Venezuela, whose top officials, including Maduro, and Venezuela’a national oil company, PDVSA, were slapped with U.S. economic sanctions in July 2017.

As a result, Maduro and Rodriguez stopped paying Rivera’s company, Interamerican Consulting, through the American subsidiary.

Despite the setbacks, Rivera and Nuhfer continued to communicate with Sessions and arranged for the congressman to travel to Caracas to meet with Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at a military compound near the presidential palace on April 2, 2018. Sessions testified that Congress, the State Department and Trump administration were fully aware of his meeting with Venezuela’s president.

Rivera, Perera and others — excluding Nuhfer — flew to Caracas in Gorrín’s private jet from South Florida. Sessions made the trip on a commercial flight.

Sessions said he and Maduro — with Rivera acting as an interpreter — discussed holding democratic elections, freeing political prisoners and allowing the president and his family to move to a “safe haven” after he left power. He said Maduro expressed interest in the plan.

After the trip, Maduro and Sessions exchanged letters. On April 13, 2018, Sessions wrote that he shared “issues of mutual concern between the United States and Venezuela” with incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and planned to discuss them with then-President Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton.

But, ultimately, Maduro did not agree to any of the U.S. demands in exchange for his exit.

In January, the U.S. military seized Maduro in Caracas and brought him to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in New York.

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