Records show that Alliegro lives modestly. In 2009, she reported earning just $24,000 in her financial disclosure forms.

In 2007, her attempt to register a new company was denied when her $130 check to the state’s Division of Corporations bounced, records show. Last year, Alliegro earned $42,000 through her consulting company, records show.

Sternad has said that Alliegro contacted him out of the blue after he decided to run in the Congressional District 26 race, which had a crowded field of Democrats who wanted to topple Rivera, the incumbent Republican.

“I wanted to know who put him up,” Alliegro previously told The Herald.

She set up a meeting in spring 2012 at the Miller’s Miami Falls Ale House near Pinecrest. She admitted she was friends with Rivera and knew Garcia, but still offered to run Sternad’s campaign.

“I asked a million times. Why are you running for Congress? Why don’t you run for something local?” Alliegro said.

Sternad, according to Yabor, said he did not know Alliegro herself was a plant for Rivera, but he should have known.

“I’m friends with this guy so if by some miracle you win, I will support my buddy David,” Alliegro told Sternad.

As the primary race intensified between Garcia and another challenger, Gloria Romero Roses, Alliegro went to work on Sternad’s behalf. She delivered envelopes stuffed with crisp $100 bills to Rapid Mail & Computer Services, a Hialeah mailing house that sent out a dozen different types of mailers for Sternad, the owner said. Rivera had used Rapid Mail for his campaigns for years.

One of the mailers savaged Garcia, criticizing him over his divorce with a line of attack first espoused publicly by Rivera.

None of the work or the money for the mailers was initially disclosed by Sternad’s campaign. Federal law requires federal candidates to report all expenditures and contributions — including loans. Sternad later amended his reports to show he loaned himself about $64,000, which still might not have covered the consulting and printing costs for the mailers.

Sternad’s reports, handled by Alliegro, only initially listed about $11,000 in personal loans from Sternad. That appeared to be a big amount of money for Sternad, who only earned $30,000 the previous year and had a one-third interest in a family mutual fund worth a maximum of $100,000 that produced no income the previous year.

Two vendors say the Sternad campaign was run by Rivera, not Alliegro.

John Borrero, the owner of Rapid Mail, said that Alliegro walked in one time with Sternad and they were there for five minutes.

“I shook his hand and he said he was running for Congress,” Borrero told The Herald in August. “Ana came in to pay for the mailings, but she was totally disorganized, all over the place.”

Borrero said Alliegro often gave him the same answer when he asked for specifics on mailings: “Ask David.”

In all, Borrero said he was paid nearly $47,000 for his work. Nearly all of it was delivered in the cash-stuffed envelopes, some of which the FBI now has as evidence. Some of the money was delivered by Alliegro, and in one case Rivera directed a Rapid Mail secretary to go collect $7,800 tucked into a mail box, employees have told the FBI.

Only $9,000 was paid by check on Sternad’s behalf — and that money came from a company called Expert Printing, which printed the mailers. Expert Printing company officials won’t comment.

Another vendor, Hugh Cochran of Campaign Data, said Rivera used him to target the mailers for voters on behalf of Sternad.

Rivera has denied any knowledge of Sternad or his campaign.

Rivera is already facing federal scrutiny into his personal and campaign finances. The investigation stemmed from a secret $500,000 dog-track payment Rivera, then a state legislator, helped secure to lead a successful 2008 ballot initiative to legalize Las Vegas-style slot machines in Miami-Dade.

Rivera denied arranging the contract for his mother’s company, but she later contradicted that in a sworn statement.

For months, Rivera and Alliegro have been spotted around town. A fan of Social Media, her Twitter feed and Facebook account include photos of the two, and musings ranging from her devotion to Jesus Christ to quoting Sr. Winston Churchill: “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver ...”

One of her Tumblr posts, written seven months ago, had a lonely and prophetic quality to it:

“In 6 months I am leaving Miami in search of new adventure. Not sure where but I hope I find my own ‘Prince Charming’ before I croak. I think it would be lovely to keep good company. I am kind of sad today. Yet, that’s the way it goes. “A Malos Tiempos Buena Cara”. Hugs to all -I might take a break for a few days until I figure out the eternal question. Why me? And what was I thinking?”

Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.