Venezuela’s state oil company in 2017 hired a former congressman with a checkered past to help improve its “long-term reputation and standing” in the U.S. His contracted fee: an eye-popping $50 million to be paid over three months.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the U.S. subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA said Interamerican Consulting, the firm of Florida Republican David Rivera, only got $15 million in the end. But for that amount, the company says it basically got two reports totaling no more than five pages, much of which was copied from other sources.
