MIAMI (AP) – Recently filed lobbying reports show that Venezuela’s socialist government had previously hired a longtime Democratic Party donor for $ 6 million, while at the same time lobbying to discourage the US from imposing sanctions on the oil-rich country.
The documents, revealed Thursday, show that a US subsidiary of Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA agreed in March 2017 to hire Marcia Wiss’s law firm in Washington. That’s the same month it signed a $ 50 million advisory deal with scandal-tainted former Congressman David Rivera.
Wiss, an international trade attorney with a history of donations to the Democratic Party, including a $ 1,500 contribution to Joe Biden last year, denies lobbying.
Her former client – now under new management – said she was unaware of the full extent of her work to determine whether it was political activities benefiting Nicolás Maduro’s government. The PDVSA subsidiary also took the unusual step of retroactively registering as a foreign agent, disclosing the contracts with Rivera, Wiss and a third party supplier.
The contracts have come to light as allies of opposition leader Juan Guaidó work with the Justice Department to expose any corrupt transactions at another wholly owned subsidiary of the PDVSA, Houston-based Citgo, which worked for years as a cash cow for money. the ruling party of Venezuela. A Guaidó-appointed administration has taken control of Citgo, the sixth largest independent refinery in the US, after the Trump administration recognized him as Venezuela’s rightful leader in 2019.
The same Guaidó-appointed officials behind last year’s new foreign lobbying requests have sued Rivera for breaking his consulting contract. Federal prosecutors in Miami are also investigating whether the Republican violated foreign lobbying rules.
At the time of both Wiss and Rivera detention, Maduro sought to gain favor with the Trump administration, avoiding outright criticism of the new US president while funneling $ 500,000 through Citgo to his inaugural committee.
The contracts with Rivera and Wiss were part of an effort to discourage the then-new Trump administration and other governments from imposing sanctions on Venezuela, according to three people familiar with the deals who spoke to politics on condition of anonymity. sensitive issue. The payments came from a little-known Delaware registered subsidiary, PDV USA, which provided shareholder services to PDVSA independent 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, Trump received the wife of a prominent Venezuelan activist in prison in the early days of his presidency and imposed the first of progressively tougher sanctions on PDVSA in August 2017. Democrats welcomed the harsh position and the European Union began targeting Maduro allies with its own restrictions.
But in a similar tactful approach is now being tried again with the Biden Maduro’s government tried for a while to ease hostilities with the US, which was Venezuela’s largest trading partner for decades, before sanctions brought him closer to US opponents such as Russia, China and Iran. Also in the mix was US Rep. Pete Sessions, who tried to recruit PDVSA to host a meeting with the head of Exxon at the same time that the oil giant’s former CEO, Rex Tillerson, was serving as Trump’s secretary of state.
Wiss collected about half of the $ 6 million in monthly installments of $ 250,000 before, like Rivera, he was instructed to bill PDVSA in Caracas in April 2018, according to the documents. On one occasion, she traveled to Caracas to meet with then Secretary of State Delcy Rodríguez, a PDVSA board member responsible for international relations, according to two of the three people familiar with the deal. Rodríguez is now the Vice President of Venezuela.
Wiss said her law firm has not and never has provided lobbying services. She added that the company never billed or ever received a payment from PDVSA or any non-US related party – suggesting that half of the contract was unpaid.
Wiss was hired to provide legal services only to PDV USA and its affiliates, she wrote in an email response to inquiries.
But the Guaido-appointed board of PDV USA believed that hiring Wiss, Rivera and a third company, Caribbean Style Inc., was required to register under foreign lobbying rules. Texas-based Caribbean Style received $ 625,000 to place four full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post.
“The pro-Venezuelan and anti-US sanction content of these ads suggests that they were intended to influence the US government or the US public’s perspective of the US sanctions regime on Venezuela,” said PDV USA in the dated filing. December 31.
In total, between 2015 and March 2017, PDVSA sent $ 89 million to PDV USA to pay US-based suppliers, according to the filing, first reported by Foreign Lobby Report, an online news service that tracks the influence industry.
PDV USA said Wiss provided updates on disputes related to PDVSA and advised on immigration, insurance and cryptocurrency.
But it added that “PDV USA is not aware of the full extent of the legal work Wiss has been doing under the commission,” suggesting that what officials appointed by Guaidó consider high compensation may have covered additional services. for which it has no record. . The AP was unable to find any records of Wiss appearing in federal court on behalf of PDV USA or PDVSA or in the large number of commercial claims against Venezuela before a World Bank arbitration panel.
Wiss would not say what legal services she provided, or whether she traveled to Caracas for work, citing attorney and client privilege. “Your information is false and you are again being misled,” she added.
Lawyers for Citgo’s new board of directors last year sued a consulting firm owned by Rivera for allegedly failing to fulfill its obligations under the contract. According to the lawsuit, Rivera, the former roommate of fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio, failed to describe any work that his company, Interamerican Consulting, had actually done, compiling just two of the seven promised bi-weekly progress reports as he made the first $ 15 million of the agreed $ 50 million.
The purpose of the contract was to improve PDVSA’s “long-term reputation” and “reputation” among “targeted stakeholders” in the US, according to a copy seen by the AP.
Rivera’s political career unraveled amid several election-related controversies, including orchestrating an unknown Democratic candidate’s stealth funding to face off against his main rival in a South Florida convention game and a state inquiry into whether he was contracted of $ 1 million with a gambling company. He has never been charged with a crime.
Rivera’s business deal is also under federal criminal investigation in Miami because Rivera never registered with the Justice Department, which would be necessary when lobbying US officials on behalf of a foreign government.
Wiss has also never registered as a foreign agent and there are no indications that she is under investigation herself.
Wiss was a longtime attorney at Hogan Lovells, where PDVSA was a client, before founding her own boutique firm, Wiss & Partners, in 2016.
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Researcher Randy Herschaft of the Associated Press in New York contributed to this report.
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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman