No Surprise: David Rivera Investigated by FBI & IRS

This isn't really news. There has been rumors for quite some time that the FBI and IRS are investigating Rep. David Rivera.

Federal investigators have opened a second criminal probe of U.S. Rep. David Rivera, examining undisclosed payments from a Miami gambling enterprise to a company tied to the Republican congressman, The Miami Herald has learned.

Agents with the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service have begun interviewing witnesses knowledgeable about a $1 million consulting contract between Flagler Dog Track — now known as Magic City Casino — and Millennium Marketing, a company co-owned by Rivera’s 70-year-old mother and her business partner, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The involvement of the IRS and the questions agents have asked indicate Rivera is the subject of an income-tax evasion inquiry, said a source.

The investigation goes beyond the exchange of money between Rivera and his family members through the Flagler Dog Track and Millennium Marketing. Rivera received $137,000 and did not report it. Rivera later claimed it was a loan. How many politicians receive loans from lobbying organizations run by his mother and godmother.

This is the classic shakedown job by a politician.

But Martinez told The Herald last year that it was Rivera who first approached the dog track about running the pro-slots campaign, and it was Rivera who suggested that the contract go through Millennium. Dog track officials had no contact with Medina or Magarino during the contract negotiations, Martinez said last year. Rivera signed the 2006 contract with Magic City along with Medina, records show.

Rivera then set-up family members to run Millennium Marketing. The loan looks like a secret funneling of money. Flagler Dog Track got its casino slot machines. The Rivera family got paid off for pushing slot machine legislation through the Florida legislature.

Esther Nurfer was interviewed by the FBI. Rivera made $150,000 and $250,000 payments to Nurfer's consulting firm Communication Solutions. The funny thing is the Republican Party of Florida have no record of these transactions. Nurfer is Rivera's girlfriend.