{"id":375964,"date":"2026-08-19T21:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375964\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:54:25","slug":"esther-nuhfer-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-for-venezuela-lobbying-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375964\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Nuhfer sentenced to 5 years in prison for Venezuela lobbying case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0August 18, 2026 at 3:44 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Updated:\u00a0August 18, 2026 at 6:02 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 Esther Nuhfer walked out of a Miami-Dade County courthouse Tuesday with her family by her side and a five-year prison sentence hanging over her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/08\/18\/esther-nuhfer-condenada-a-5-anos-de-prision-por-el-caso-de-cabildeo-relacionado-con-venezuela\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/08\/18\/esther-nuhfer-condenada-a-5-anos-de-prision-por-el-caso-de-cabildeo-relacionado-con-venezuela\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Wearing dark sunglasses and making no comment, Nuhfer left moments after a judge handed down the sentence in the case tied to former Miami Congressman David Rivera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nuhfer, a political consultant, was Rivera\u2019s co-defendant in the case involving allegations of secretly lobbying for Venezuela\u2019s government during the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The courtroom was packed with Nuhfer\u2019s friends and family, who testified on her behalf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cEsther\u2019s an extraordinary person,\u201d said Jeanie Hernandez-Porter, a friend of Nuhfer. \u201cShe\u2019s like the tide that is the wave to people. She lifts them up. She\u2019s not a person motivated by greed or betrayal. She loves this country. That\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The case is tied to a multimillion-dollar deal in 2017 involving Venezuela\u2019s state oil company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 2022, that deal became the center of Rivera\u2019s indictment and arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The judge ultimately called it \u201cthe David Rivera show,\u201d determining Nuhfer did not play a lead role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">But the five-year prison sentence still stands.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Linnie Supall\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/CANLLYSXDJBXDMDOXMBEIDTX.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Linnie Supall<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Linnie Supall is an Emmy nominated and award-winning journalist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0August 18, 2026 at 3:44 PM Updated:\u00a0August 18, 2026 at 6:02 PM MIAMI \u2014 Esther Nuhfer walked out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-375964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}