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In reply to the discussion: Twitter pic of Chelsea with her daughter Charlotte. [View all]Divernan
(15,480 posts)51. "bit of legal trouble": convicted felon defrauded friends/family of $10 million.
[div class="excerpt"
According to ABC News, Mezvinsky's downfall stemmed from an activity that has long been the subject of one of this site's most frequently-accessed articles, the ubiquitous Nigerian scam (also known as 419 fraud):
Despite being released in April 2008 after serving five years in prison, Mezvinsky remains on federal probation and still owes almost $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.
An ABC News investigation revealed that Mezvinsky, a former Democratic Congressman from Iowa, had been caught up in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams and began to steal from people to further his schemes.
"He was always looking for the home run. He was always trying to find the business deal that would make him as wealthy as all the people in his social circle," said federal prosecutor Bob Zauzmer. According to Zauzmer, Mezvinsky, who is now 72, will be on supervised release, the federal version of probation, until 2011.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/mezvinsky.asp#c670ll7ucVVw5rKs.99
Beginning in the early 1990s Mezvinsky fell prey to a wide variety of 419 scams. According to a federal prosecutor, Mezvinsky was conned by "just about every different kind of African-based scam weve ever seen."[10] In order to raise the funds needed to front the money for the fraudulent investment schemes he was being offered, Mezvinsky became, himself, a conman, tapping his network of contacts and dropping the name of the Clinton family to convince unwitting marks to give him money, he would call and say, Im spending the weekend with the Clintons..[11]
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/the-clinton-in-law-marjorie-margolies-100696_Page3.html#ixzz3Eackz3Hz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mezvinsky
As to his former wife, Marjorie Margolies, who just lost a primary bid to run for Congress,
she is profiled in a Politico article by a writer for Philadelphia magazine, as follows:
The Clinton-in-Law
(Headline)Marjorie Margoliess son married Chelsea Clinton. Is that enough to fuel her political comeback?
By SIMON VAN ZUYLEN-WOOD
December 04, 2013
Theres no question that the scandal and its messy fallout were damaging to Margolies as well. When she filed for bankruptcy, a judge rejected her assertion of ignorance in a scathing decision that, depending on how you read it, either calls her feminism into question or suggests she knows more than shes letting on. Her consistent response to questions asked by her creditors about the disposition of her assets is lack of knowledge or my husband handled it, a mantra that is completely at odds with her public persona, background, and accomplishments, the judge wrote.
Toni Goldberg defends Margolies as a career woman who was too busy to pay heed to her husbands schemes, but she says the judges indictment made sense to many at the time. Whatever decisions that were made in the marriage, their life, political life, social lifeMarjorie was the head guy, she says. And Ed adored her. And Ed just followed. (Margolies declined to comment on the Fenton lawsuit or the bankruptcy case.)
In 1997, several years after their first Renaissance Weekend together, Chelsea Clinton decided to attend Stanford University, where Marc was already enrolled. Rumors of romance followed. (The two officially started dating in 2005, though Goldberg says that they kept it undercover for many years before that. Another friend, Nancy Chasen, says that they were just best best best friends.) However close Chelsea and Marc were, Ed Mezvinsky tried to use their bond to his advantage. During his trial, it came out that he had tried to woo investors by touting Chelseas relationship with his son. When he thought it would help, a federal prosecutor told the New York Times.
Toni Goldberg defends Margolies as a career woman who was too busy to pay heed to her husbands schemes, but she says the judges indictment made sense to many at the time. Whatever decisions that were made in the marriage, their life, political life, social lifeMarjorie was the head guy, she says. And Ed adored her. And Ed just followed. (Margolies declined to comment on the Fenton lawsuit or the bankruptcy case.)
In 1997, several years after their first Renaissance Weekend together, Chelsea Clinton decided to attend Stanford University, where Marc was already enrolled. Rumors of romance followed. (The two officially started dating in 2005, though Goldberg says that they kept it undercover for many years before that. Another friend, Nancy Chasen, says that they were just best best best friends.) However close Chelsea and Marc were, Ed Mezvinsky tried to use their bond to his advantage. During his trial, it came out that he had tried to woo investors by touting Chelseas relationship with his son. When he thought it would help, a federal prosecutor told the New York Times.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/the-clinton-in-law-marjorie-margolies-100696_Page3.html#ixzz3EaUbInjd
(S)he filed for bankruptcy,[20] but failed to receive a discharge from her debts, based on 11 U.S.C. §727(a)(5). The court found Mezvinsky had failed to satisfactorily explain a significant loss of assets in the four years prior to her bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy judge stated, in her published opinion, "I find that the Debtor has failed to satisfactorily explain the loss of approximately $775,000 worth of assets (the difference between the $810,000 represented in May 1996 and the $35,000 now claimed in her Amended Schedule B)." Sonders v. Mezvinsky (in re Mezvinsky), 265 B.R. 681, 694 (Bankr. E.D. Pa. 2001).
According to documents obtained by The Huffington Post, as Ed Mezvinsky's fraud was exposed, Margolies doubled her own salary as head of a small, largely taxpayer-funded charity into the six figures, attempted to have the charity renovate and lease a mansion in which she would live, billed the charity for her automobile lease and other expenses, and required charity staff to assist with her other responsibilities as a faculty member at a local university.
The Huffington Post earlier reported that over the past several years, Margolies was paid an unusually large salary given the size of her charity, Women's Campaign International, whose revenue in recent years was in the very low millions. In defending that salary in December, WCI noted that the charity's board of directors determines compensation -- not Margolies, who still runs the charity.
That explanation, however, elided one critical detail: For the first three years of WCI's existence, and at a crucial board meeting at which the decision about her salary was made, Margolies was herself the chairman of the (3 member) board.
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If they're not careful, Big Dog is going to spoil his granddaughter. Well, that's what Granddads do.
sarge43
Sep 2014
#6
"bit of legal trouble": convicted felon defrauded friends/family of $10 million.
Divernan
Sep 2014
#51
Borowitz had a good one today about how a Republican PAC released their first Charlotte attack ad
catbyte
Sep 2014
#22
Those are really nice loving pics of baby Charlotte, Chelsea, Marc Mezvinsky, Hillary and
Cha
Sep 2014
#52
john derbyshire should be shitting bricks over these! Which would be a good thing!
calimary
Sep 2014
#60
There's the possibility that she'll be the only granddaughter of 2 Presidents.
lunatica
Sep 2014
#61