Venezuela's socialist regime hired a longstanding Democrat Party donor for $6 million, while the country was lobbying to thwart U.S. sanctions, newly filed lobbying records show.
The documents reveal that in March 2017, a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA agreed to hire Marcia Wiss’ Washington law firm. Also in March 2017, the subsidiary of PDVSA signed a $50 million consulting deal with controversial former Congressman David Rivera, Fox News reports.
Wiss denies she was involved with any lobbying during that time. She has a record of sizable donations to the Democratic Party, according to Fox News.
The PDVSA subsidiary said they were unaware of the full extent of Wiss' work and thus unable to discern whether her activity constituted political lobbying on behalf of Nicolás Maduro’s regime. The subsidiary also registered retroactively as a foreign agent, Fox News reports.
The contracts surfaced as supporters of Juan Guaidó, pro-democracy opposition leader against Maduro, work with the U.S. government to uncover corrupt foreign dealings involving another PDVSA subsidiary Citgo.
