Former Republican U.S. Representative David Rivera was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Saturday after being convicted of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela without disclosing his work to the United States government as required by federal law. Rivera, who represented a South Florida district in Congress from 2011 to 2013, was found to have worked as an unregistered foreign agent for the Venezuelan government.

Rivera's conviction centered on his failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a federal law requiring individuals who lobby or advocate on behalf of foreign governments or entities to disclose that work to the Department of Justice. Prosecutors argued that Rivera deliberately concealed his financial and political activities on Venezuela's behalf, operating covertly in a manner that undermined the transparency the law was designed to ensure.

The case drew attention given Rivera's background as a prominent Cuban-American politician from Florida, a state with a large population of Cuban and Venezuelan exiles who are generally deeply opposed to the leftist governments of those countries. Rivera denied wrongdoing throughout the proceedings, but the court ultimately found the evidence of his undisclosed lobbying activities sufficient to support the conviction and the decade-long sentence.

Federal authorities have increasingly pursued FARA enforcement cases in recent years as concerns about foreign influence operations in the United States have grown across party lines. Rivera's sentencing represents one of the most significant outcomes in such a case involving a former elected official. He is expected to report to federal custody following the sentencing hearing.