Posted on 09/29/2002 10:38:29 AM PDT by kattracks
PHILADELPHIA, Sep 29, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- In their heyday, former Rep. Ed Mezvinsky and his wife were a power couple in Democratic Party circles and on suburban Philadelphia's swanky Main Line.
The "Friends of Bill" had both served in Congress, and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a magnetic former TV reporter, was gearing up for a 2000 Senate bid. Their mansion in Narbeth saw a steady stream of political advisers, friends and their 11 children, some adopted from overseas.
Today, the couple's careers, mansion, money and status are all but gone.
Edward Mezvinsky, 65, admitted in court Friday that he had bilked investors who had handed over more than $10 million, including some of those same friends, his law clients and even his late mother-in-law.
"I'm trying to understand what happened," Mezvinsky said Saturday from his rented house in Merion, as he watched his native Iowa edge Penn State in overtime. "Something broke."
Margolies-Mezvinsky, 60, has kept a low profile since the couple's separate bankruptcy filings in 2000 and her husband's March 2001 indictment. She was noticeably absent Friday when he pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 fraud-related counts.
Margolies-Mezvinsky wasn't charged and has said she left the family finances to her husband. She wasn't home and couldn't be reached for comment, her husband said Saturday.
"This has not broken Marjorie, nor do I believe it's broken Ed," said her lawyer, Zachary L. Grayson. "They're lovely people who have lived their lives as much for others as for themselves."
Mezvinsky, the heir to a small supermarket chain fortune, was a star athlete in Ames, Iowa, who went on to earn a law degrees in California. By age 36, he was representing his home state in Washington, where he met Margolies, then a reporter.
Each had a moment in the spotlight in Congress: His when he served on the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach President Nixon; hers when she cast the deciding vote for Bill Clinton's 1993 tax hike.
That 1993 vote endeared her to the Clintons, who would invite the couple to their Renaissance Weekends in Hilton Head, S.C., but it also cost Margolies-Mezvinsky her seat in largely Republican Montgomery County.
She remained in politics, heading the U.S. delegation to the Beijing Women's Conference and unsuccessfully running for lieutenant governor.
Mezvinsky, after serving in Congress from 1973 to 1977, became an ambassador to a United Nations commission and state Democratic Party chairman. He also spent millions on unsuccessful races for the U.S. Senate in 1980 and attorney general in 1988.
His troubles deepened in the 1990s, when Mezvinsky left politics and turned to international business deals. He lost millions to African con artists pitching pyramid-type schemes.
"Without any meaningful income, he was perpetually in debt throughout the 1990s," the plea agreement states.
While he first sought ever-larger bank loans, that pipeline soon shut down, and by 1995 he was turning to individual investors.
Moving money at a frenetic pace, he deposited $13.28 million in his numerous accounts from 1995 to early 2000, most of it from investors and clients, according to investigators, who reviewed more than 8,000 transactions.
Mezvinsky would tell some potential investors he needed up-front money to pursue a lucrative oil deal in Nigeria or other projects, and say he could double their money, according to the plea agreement.
"He boasted to many, for example, of a close personal friendship with President and Mrs. Clinton, and of his son's friendship with Chelsea Clinton at Stanford University," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer wrote in the 133-page agreement.
During the same period, Mezvinsky spent $13.3 million, with 44 percent of the money going to creditors, 20 percent to Africans and 17 percent for cash withdrawals, they said.
While Mezvinsky blamed his woes in part on the costly campaigns and tuition bills - the University of Pennsylvania, where Margolies-Mezvinsky now teaches, once sued over a child's tuition - prosecutors say those were small potatoes.
From 1995 to 1999, Mezvinsky spent about $77,000 on tuition, but withdrew at least $2.25 million in cash, they say.
Mezvinsky's plea comes after U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell rejected defense claims that blamed his actions on a bipolar disorder and the anti-malaria drug Lariam, which he took on trips to Africa.
Prosecutors plan to ask for nine to 11 years in prison at his sentencing Jan. 9. They also will seek restitution, but acknowledge there's no money to be found.
"I'm trying to move on with my life," Mezvinsky told The Associated Press. "I'm trying to do what's right, not only respecting the system, but what's right for my family."
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On the Net:
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania:
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
What a coincidence.
NOT!
sinator hillary! has her fingerprints all over this.
Mezvinsky's case - more details of crimes of a Clintons crony!
Portraits of Great Americans.
***
Seems like everything that gets close to bill unravels, does it not?
are they from the UN?
Well said. Very well said.
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