Former congressman from Miami (Florida, USA) David Rivera was arrested this Monday in Atlanta (Georgia) on criminal charges following a federal investigation into a consulting contract for 50 million dollars that signed with the Venezuelan state PDVSA.
Local media report that the spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in MiamiMarlene Rodríguez, indicated that the arrest of Rivera, 57, in Congress in Washington between 2011 and 2013, took place this Monday at the Atlanta airport, although he has already been released.
The former congressman, according to Florida media, had signed a consulting contract worth 50 million dollars in 2017 with the company’s US subsidiary Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)entity called citgowith the aim of improving the image of that corporation in the United States.
Rivera was indicted on November 16 by a federal grand jury from the Southern District of Florida in Miami, but the document remains sealed, so the charges are not officially known.
Rivera, for years, had been under investigation after it came to light that he allegedly received that million-dollar amount through a contract signed with citgo.
The contract was signed in the context of a first stage of relations between the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the Administration of donald trumpin which from Caracas It was about getting a rapprochement with the new tenant of the White House.
Rivera’s company, Interamerican Consulting, was sued in 2020 by the PDV affiliate in the US, alleging that the former congressman did not carry out any consulting work as part of the contract signed in 2017.
That contract is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Miami.
The lawsuit states that Interamerican Consulting, owned by Rivera, was to develop strategies to improve PDVSA’s reputation and positioning in the United States, a job that was allegedly never carried out.
The agreement established that Interamerican would charge 50 million dollars for their services between March and June 2017which would be paid in six payments by the PDV subsidiary, according to the lawsuit.
Juan GuaidoVenezuela’s interim president and opposition leader, appointed a new PDV US management team, which launched an audit of Citgo, the Delaware-based US subsidiary of PDVSA, that led to the lawsuit.
Rivera, for his part, has maintained his innocence and filed a countersuit against PDV in the US alleging an alleged breach of contract for not paying him $30 million that he is still owed.
Rivera’s contract was with a US entity, so any work he did on behalf of Venezuelan business interests would have required registration as a foreign lobbyist, which he apparently did not do.
Rivera received only a portion of the $50 million, but the indictment alleges he diverted the money to a drug trafficker and a yacht company on behalf of a Venezuelan television mogul wanted by US authorities.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com