MIAMI (AP) – Newly filed lobbying records show Venezuela’s socialist government previously hired a longtime Democratic donor for $ 6 million, while lobbying to discourage the US from imposing sanctions on the oil – rich nation to impose.
The documents, released Thursday, show that a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA agreed to hire Marcia Wiss’s Washington law firm in March 2017. It’s the same month it signed a $ 50 million consultation agreement with former Congressman David, who was tainted by the scandal. Rivera.
Wiss, an international trade lawyer with a history of donations to the Democratic Party, who last year included a $ 1,500 contribution to Joe Biden, denies doing any lobbying.
Her former client – now under new management – said she was not aware of the full scope of her work to determine if it was political activity that benefited Nicolás Maduro’s government. The PDVSA subsidiary also took the unusual step of retroactively registering as a foreign agent and announcing the contracts with Rivera, Wiss and a third seller.
The contracts came to light when allies of opposition leader Juan Guaidó work with the Justice Department to detect corrupt operations with another wholly-owned PDVSA, Citgo, in Houston, which has been a cash cow for the ruling party in Venezuela for years. acted. A council appointed by Guaidó has shown control of Citgo, the sixth largest independent American refinery, after the Trump administration recognized him as the legitimate leader of Venezuela in 2019.
The same officials appointed by Guaidó last year have sued Rivera for breach of his consulting contract. Federal prosecutors in Miami are also investigating whether the Republican violated foreign lobbying rules.
By the time both Wiss and Rivera were retained, Maduro was trying to gain favor with the Trump administration, and he avoided direct criticism of the new U.S. president while leading $ 500,000 through Citgo to his inaugural committee.
The contracts with Rivera and Wiss were part of an effort to discourage the then Trump administration and other governments from imposing sanctions on Venezuela, according to three people familiar with the deals who spoke on condition of anonymity to the politically sensitive discuss matter. The payments come from a little-known, Delaware-registered subsidiary, PDV USA, which provided shareholder services to PDVSA, regardless of Citgo’s oil operations.
The three people said the holding company was regularly used by Maduro’s government for political activities in the US
The charm offensive failed. Backed by exiles in Miami, in the early days of his presidency, Trump housed the wife of a prominent Venezuelan prison activist and in August 2017 imposed the first gradually more restrictive sanctions on PDVSA. Democrats applauded the hardline and the European Union began targeting Maduro allies with its own restrictions.
But in a similarly tactful approach, it is now being tried again with the Biden Maduro has been trying for some time to ease hostilities with the US, which had been Venezuela’s largest trading partner for decades before sanctions pushed him closer to US opponents such as Russia, China and Iran. U.S. Representative Pete Sessions, who tried to recruit PDVSA to set up a meeting, was also in the mix. with the head of Exxon at the same time, the former CEO of the oil giant, Rex Tillerson, served as Trump’s secretary of state.
Wiss raised about half of the $ 6 million in $ 250,000 monthly installments before, like Rivera, he was instructed to repay PDVSA in Caracas in April 2018, according to the documentation. On one occasion, she traveled to Caracas to meet then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, who was a PDVSA board member responsible for international relations, according to two of the three people familiar with the deal. Rodríguez is now Venezuela’s vice president.
Wiss said her law firm does not provide lobbying services and that she has never provided lobbying services.
“Wiss was only engaged to provide legal services to PDV USA and its subsidiary,” she replied by email.
But the Guaido-appointed board of PDV USA agreed that the lease of Wiss, Rivera and a third company, Caribbean Style Inc., required it to register under foreign lobbying rules. The Texas-based Caribbean Style was paid $ 625,000 to place four full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post.
“The pro-Venezuelan and anti-American sanctions content of these advertisements indicates that it was intended to influence the U.S. government or the U.S. public’s perspective of the U.S. sanctions government rating on Venezuela,” PDV USA said in its submission dated is. 31 December.
In total, between 2015 and March 2017, PDVSA sent $ 89 million to PDV USA to pay U.S. suppliers, according to the filing, which was first reported by Foreign Lobby Report, an online news service that follows the influential industry.
PDV USA said Wiss provided updates on disputes regarding PDVSA and advice on immigration, insurance and cryptocurrency.
But he added that “PDV USA is not aware of the full extent of the legal work that Wiss may have done under the holder,” suggesting that the officials appointed by Guaidó as a high fee may have covered additional services. has for which he has no record. The AP could not find any record of Wiss appearing on behalf of PDV USA or PDVSA in federal court or in the large number of commercial claims against Venezuela before an arbitration panel of the World Bank.
Wiss did not want to say what legal services she performed, and whether she traveled to Caracas as part of her job, citing the privilege of attorney and client. “Your information is untrue and you are being misled again,” she added.
Attorneys for Citgo’s new board of directors sued a Rivera-owned consulting firm last year for allegedly failing to meet its obligations under the contract. According to the lawsuit, Rivera, the former roommate of fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio, did not describe any work his firm, Interamerican Consulting, actually did, compiling only two of the seven promised biweekly progress reports, while the first $ 15 was raised. . million of the agreed $ 50 million.
The purpose of the contract was to improve PDVSA’s ‘long-term reputation’ and ‘status’ among ‘targeted stakeholders’ in the US, according to a copy seen by the AP.
Rivera’s political career unraveled amid several controversies surrounding the election, including the orchestration of the rogue funding of an unknown Democratic candidate to tackle his biggest rival in a South Florida congressional race and a state investigation into whether he has a contract of $ 1 million with a gambling company. He has never been charged with a crime.
Rivera’s business deal is also under criminal investigation in Miami, as Rivera never registered with the Department of Justice, which would be required if U.S. officials lobbied on behalf of a foreign government.
Wiss also never registered as a foreign agent and there is no indication that she is being investigated herself.
Wiss was a longtime lawyer at Hogan Lovells, where PDVSA was a client, before starting her own boutique business, Wiss & Partners, in 2016.
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Associated Press researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.
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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman