David Rivera, chum of boligarchs, hired by Maduro's PDVSA

This site first became aware of David Rivera around the time David Osío was crowing about some gong the U.S. Congress was allegedly going to bestow on him, for "distinguished contributions". Rivera organised the charade. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, herself married to a partner of infamous Al Cardenas, was in attendance, all smiles with Rivera and Osío, who basically funded the gig for reputation scrubbing purposes. Osío "distinguished contributions" to America can only be his field of expertise -money laundering and corruption- of which the land of the free has plenty. And to illustrate the point, Rivera provides a perfect exhibit: a lobbying contract with Nicolas Maduro's PDVSA.

News about the lawsuit broke yesterday. In case PDV USA, Inc. v. Interamerican Consulting Inc. (Southern District of New York, ref 1:20-cv-03699), PDV USA (under Juan Guaido's control) accuses Rivera's Interamerican Consulting Inc. of breach of contract for services he was meant to provide. What services were these?

"Those “strategic consulting services,” as set out in Exhibit A to the Agreement, concerned the development of strategies to enhance the reputation and standing of PDV USA’s ultimate parent entity, PDVSA, in the United States."

"During that period, Interamerican was obligated by the Agreement to provide at least seven bi-weekly reports detailing the activities it had carried out during the applicable two-week period and one final report summarizing all the work performed under the Agreement and providing recommendations for monitoring the strategies implemented."

"The reports also refer generically to meetings and discussions with "important policy makers and opinion leaders in the United States,” “key public officials,” “target stakeholders,” “public sector stakeholders,” and “private sector stakeholders,” but fail to describe the purpose of those meetings, who attended, what was discussed, or what makes any of these leaders, officials or stakeholders important to Interamerican’s “strategic plan.”

So Rivera was basically contracted to lobby for PDVSA, right?

Go ahead. Do visit FARA's record search facility. Try and find information about Rivera's Interamerican Consulting Inc. Try different sites, in the Senate as well... So Rivera didn't fail only to perform the "services" for which Maduro hired him, worse still he did not even bother to register as a lobbyist!

Monies paid, not paid, advances... that's not even relevant here. What's critical is the interplay between thugs who portray themselves as opponents of chavismo taking chavismo's dime at the first opportunity. Osío is, of course, a poster boy of that class. So is Andres Coles, his sidekick who goes around giving his thoughts on "how to rescue Venezuela from the evil hands of chavismo", while hanging with American creditors loaded on junk Venezuela bonds.

Who was at the helm of PDVSA in March 2017? Let's see:

"De esta manera, fueron investidos (Eulogio) Del Pino, como presidente de la estatal; Maribel Parra, vicepresidenta ejecutiva; Nelson Ferrer, vicepresidente de Exploración y Producción Petrolera; Guillermo Blanco Acosta, vicepresidente de Refinación; Simón Zerpa, vicepresidente de Finanzas; Ismel Serrano, vicepresidente de Comercio y Suministro; César Triana, vicepresidente de Gas; Marianni Gómez, vicepresidenta de Planificación e Ingeniería; Delcy Rodríguez, vicepresidenta de Asuntos Internacionales; Yurbis Gómez, Ricardo León, Rodolfo Marco Torres, Ricardo Menéndez y Wills Rangel, directores externos de la Junta Directiva..."

Rivera is just an Uberised, pay-as-you-go Deliveroo boy about to get hassled for the doings of those who got the contract. Or are we to believe that Maduro's PDVSA put out a public tender, and after much wrangling and due diligence Rivera was picked as the most cost-efficient, experienced man for enhancing "...the reputation and standing of PDV USA’s ultimate parent entity, PDVSA, in the United States"?

Were some of those mentioned above not caught in a $4 billion debt-renegotiation attempt related to CITGO? Which of Rivera's mates inhabit Venezuela's financial and sovereign debt space?

Rivera was, well and truly, an established loser in March of 2017. Why pick him? Questions need to be put to Rivera's "friends" in Miami, like Osío, Coles, and their "opposition" network. Alas the plaintiff, PDV USA, is under Guaido's control, it'll never come to that...