After years of quiet, behind-the-scenes absence — with just a few recent Tallahassee and Miami sightings — former Congressman David Rivera is in the news again — sued by a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan regime-owned petroleum enterprise for breach 
of contract on $50 million deal to purportedly grease the wheels for the company (read: government) in D.C.
Rivera’s Interamerican Consulting firm entered into the three-month contract with a New York-based subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the state-owned oil and natural gas company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in 2017 for a strategic plan to improve its “reputation and standing among, and build relationships with, policy makers, opinion leaders, public officials, and targeted stakeholders,” according to the pleadings in New York State court. He was supposed to provide seven biweekly reports.
What he gave in exchange for $15 million in payments was nothing more than two reports totaling five pages.
Can we give him a medal?
Read related: If at first you don’t succeed… David Rivera tries again in HD 105
Because if anyone thinks ol’ Nine Lives Rivera ever intended to do any work for the Nicolas Maduro regime, they’re crazier 
than his old girlfriend, Ana Sol Alliegro. The king of political survival is a professional con artist. Rivera has conned voters, lawmakers, prosecutors, voters again, women, journalists. Ladra is sure he fully intended to rip off the Venezuelan government.
Rivera will likely become a local hero for this. In fact, if he doesn’t get in trouble with the U.S. Department of Treasury — no U.S. person may do business with the Maduro government absent a federal license — Rivera could get elected again after this little stunt. Just watch.
There is the little inconvenience that Rivera is being sued by the rightful, new government under the administration of Juan Guaidó, which has been recognized by the U.S. as of January of last year. The U.S. subsidiary, therefore, is in his control now. And that could be problematic to Rivera. Guaidó is a real hero. If he comes out publicly against Rivera, that could change everything.
But there is also no way in the underbelly that is Miami politics that the Venezuelan regime ever intended to give $50 million to 
just one guy. That is what we call “spread-around money.” The common opinion seems to suggest that Rivera would’ve could’ve shared with Sen. Marco Rubio, his onetime Tally roommate and BFF and a 2016 presidential candidate, who as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — and also Donald Trump’s go-to guy on Latin America — is in a good position to move policy on Venezuela.
And while anything’s possible, you’d be hard-pressed to find a lawmaker harder on the Venezuelan government than Rubio. So, maybe Rubio is in on the con?
Again, who really cares? Who really cares if a couple of veteran Cuban-American legislators rip off Maduro? Nobody in Miami.
What we should and could care about is the fact that Rivera (and Rubio, to a certain extent) suddenly had $15 million of their own “spread around” money. If people are looking for where some of that money may have gone, let’s look closer.
Both Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who is running for county mayor, and Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor John Dubois, who will run later for Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava‘s seat (since she is also running for mayor) — have accepted at least $1,000 donations from Rivera’s Interamerican Consulting, the same firm with the Venezuelan oil contract, according to their individual campaign accounts. Bovo has since said he’ll return the check.
Rivera also gave at least $1,000 to Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was photographed with Rivera at his victory party and swearing-in after DLP won the District 1 seat last November.
It’s kind of an amusing, hypocritical merry-go-round because both DLP and Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo have cut their political teeth calling candidates communists and their buddy Rivera was photographed (right) having lunch or dinner with Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega’s son Daniel Ortega Reyes and other Nicaraguan henchmen (the guy in the green polo is former State Rep. Al Gutman) — around the same time Alliegro had been shipped off to Nicaragua to avoid testifying against him in the federal elections case where Rivera allegedly planted a candidate against his Democrat rival, Joe Garcia, and everyone suspected he was getting the government’s help hiding her after he threw her under the bus. So maybe the Venezuela deal isn’t such a stretch.
Read related: Ana Sol Alliegro is back — with a vengeance and a story to tell
He’s also been seen with Venezuelan state-run Globovision TV mogul Raul Gorrin — the same Maduro enchufado that Carollo said was funding and running the recall against him. After recall attorney JC Planas made the connection last week on Cuban radio, Crazy Joe went ballistic.
Carollo went on Cuban radio Friday and said 
he had no relationship with Rivera.
Really? Well, that’s not what it says in this picture of Carollo (who was once married to Alliegro) with Rivera at the swearing in for Diaz de la Portilla (who once dated Alliegro, who openly admits she has a thing for Republican bad boys). He could say he just stood in and smiled but he used a photo of Sean Penn with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado to say their family was communists or, at best, has bad judgement to pose for a selfie with a communist lover. Isn’t karma a bitch?
Because don’t Carollo and Rivera both look happy in this picture? Happy to see each other? Doesn’t it look like David is tickling Carollo?
Didn’t Carollo — who is supposedly a federal informant with deep sources — know about Rivera’s deal, which was made in 2017? Are you telling me he knows the recall was funded by Gorrin and he knows the Calle Ocho ice cream lady is in bed with Maduro but he didn’t know about Rivera’s business?
Oh, please.
In truth, Ol’ Nine Lives is closer to DLP. They’ve been friends for years. They served together in the legislature. They’ve helped each other in the past.
So if Rivera is an ally of ADLP’s, could that mean that Diaz de la Portilla was secretly trying to run Carollo off the dais with a recall paid for by Maduro money?
Stranger things have happened. Like David Rivera having a contract to work for the Venezuelan government.
PDVSA Complaint against Dav… by Political Cortadito on Scribd
David Rivera’s ‘Maduro money’ spread to Esteban Bovo, Alex Diaz de la Portilla added by Ladra on
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