Because his filmmaking career wasn't paying the bills, Rivera and his wife moved from Southern California to Baltimore. Rivera worked with his old high school water polo buddy, Porter Stansberry, who had his own financial newsletter business. Before his death, Rivera helped with Stansberry's business in several capacities as a writer and freelance videographer. Part of his early duties involved cleaning up Stansberry's name when his firm faced charges for disseminating false stock information and defrauding public investors. (Stansberry's company was eventually fined $1.5 million.)
Rivera's home alarm went off two times the week of his disappearance. The night he went missing, Rivera picked up a call from work, but it was impossible to determine who rang him up because the call came from a switchboard. As the case unfolded, Stansberry put up a gag order to prevent employees from legally talking about Rivera. Rivera's family believed that he was murdered for knowing too much information of some sort. His brother Angel believed that someone powerful may have lost a lot of money after one of Rivera's publications got out.