Former Florida Republican Congressman David Rivera has been fined $456,000 by the Federal Election Commission for a 2012 scheme in which his campaign financed the campaign of a primary challenger to his expected Democratic candidate in an effort to undermine his opponent’s chances, Politico reports.

Rivera directed about $55,000 to the coffers of Justin Lamar Sternad, a then-33 year old upstart Democrat running for his party’s nomination for the Florida 26th District Congressional seat.  The clear favorite for the Democratic nomination was Joe Garcia, a long-time member of the influential Florida Public Service Commission.

A one-term Congressman, Rivera boosted the campaign of Sternad, a hotel administrator with no political or public service experience, by directing cash through Sternad’s campaign manager, Ana Alliegro, to pay for expenditures such as postage for the Sternad campaign.  The Miami Herald ran an expose on irregularities into the Sternad campaign finances, prompting the FBI and the FEC to investigate.

Alliegro, who was charged in February 2012 with multiple counts, including campaign finance fraud.  After losing the primary, Sternad was charged with a variety of counts in February 2013.  Originally cooperating with the investigation, Alliegro jumped bail and fled.  She was found in Nicaragua working at a barber shop cutting hair in April 2013 and was subsequently extradited back to the US.

Alliegro was sentenced to six months in jail, six months home confinement and two years’ probation.  Sternad was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and concealing the source of unreported campaign funds.  After an appeal, he was sentenced to one month in jail, three months home confinement and a year’s probation.

Alliegro and Sternad cooperated with the investigation into Rivera, who lost the 2012 election to Garcia, leaving Congress after just one term after his district was redrawn.

Rivera faces no criminal charges at this time, but the FEC levied the civil fine for campaign finance fraud because he made the donations to the Sternad campaign in a fictitious name.

Rivera later faced another investigation in 2016 concerning irregularities in his spending as a Florida state legislature, for which the state fined him $58,000.  However, because he was no longer in office when the fine was assessed, he didn’t have to pay the fine.