Republican David Rivera has not been charged with any crime, but new court documents take a detailed look at his dealings with the Venezuelan oil industry and how he allegedly spent the money he received to lobby for Nicolás Maduro and PDVSA. in the Donald Trump period
According to new allegations in a civil lawsuit released by the Associated Press news agencythe former US congressman from the Republican Party in Miami, David Rivera —who signed a $50 million consulting contract with the government of Nicolás Maduro through PDVSA during the Donald Trump administration—, in addition to not doing the job, channeled a large part of the money to a yacht company under the name by Raul Gorrin.
In August 2021, Rivera countersued to a US subsidiary of PDVSA, PDV USA, for breach of contract.
In 2020, Citgo lawyers under the instructions of the interim government of Juan Guaidó, presented a lawsuit against Rivera. There they demanded that Rivera He did almost no work as part of the $50 million contract to improve PDVSA’s reputation in the United States.. At the time, Maduro was trying to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Rivera received only $15 million of the original settlement amount, but the new court filing says he spent some of that on unexplained payments to a convicted drug trafficker and a company that manages yachts on behalf of Gorrín, who is being wanted. by the US authorities.
Also read: The US will auction one of Raúl Gorrín’s apartments in New York, according to Reuters
sparrow He is accused of paying $159 million in bribing high-ranking officials in exchange for lucrative foreign-currency deals and then hiding the profits in luxury real estate in Manhattan and Florida.
The accusations against former Congressman David Rivera will be presented on Friday in New York federal court by opponents of President Nicolás Maduro, who now control the US subsidiaries of the oil company, says the AP note.
“The new court filing cites a message in which Rivera and Venezuelan businessman Raúl Gorrín sent each other text messages saying that the ticket to the concert is $15, not 20, as we said last nightwords that PDV USA lawyers call a clear reference to a bribe»AP journalist Joshua Goodman wrote on Twitter..
The new court filing cites a message in which Rivera and Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrin texted one another that “the concert ticket is $15, not 20, as we said last night” — wording PDV USA’s lawyers call a “clear reference to a bribe.” https://t.co/nsN9FlILbi
— Joshua Goodman (@APjoshgoodman) August 20, 2022
*Also read: Two men were accused in the US of laundering 1.2 billion dollars from PDVSA
Rivera-owned consultancy Interamerican Consulting was sued in 2020 by PDV USA, a Delaware-based subsidiary of Citgo, PDV USA alleges that Rivera did not perform any work for the $50 million contract he signed in 2017 for three months of “strategic consulting.” » intended to build bridges with key US stakeholders.
The same contract has been the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Miami who are investigating, among other things, whether Rivera failed to register as a foreign lobbyist as required by law.
Rivera has not been charged with any crime, but the new documents take a detailed look at his dealings with Venezuela’s state oil industry and how he allegedly spent the money he received.
The new court filing is based on evidence recently uncovered by PDV USA’s attorneys, including 18,000 text and WhatsApp messages from Rivera’s phone and statements he made during a two-day deposition in July.
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