Edward Mezvinsky

Life and career

Mezvinsky grew up in Ames, Iowa, the son of Jewish grocery store owner Abe Mezvinsky. He was an all-state football end and member of the Ames High School state championship basketball and track teams of 1955.

Mezvinsky received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1965. He returned briefly to Iowa to practice law, but quickly began a political career. In 1965, he worked for former Rep. Neal Smith in Washington on lobbyist disclosure and ethics bills. He was elected to the Iowa Legislature in 1968, where he attracted publicity as a consumers' advocate. He lost a 1970 campaign to unseat Republican Congressman Fred Schwengel in Iowa's 1st congressional district by only 765 votes (out of over 120,000 cast). After reapportionment improved his chances, Mezvinsky won a 1972 rematch.

During his first term in Congress, he sat on the House Judiciary Committee and voted for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon for his activities in the Watergate scandal. Although Mezvinsky defeated Davenport businessman Jim Leach in 1974 in the immediate aftermath of the impeachment hearings, Leach defeated him two years later, in 1976.

Six months into his first term in Congress, Mezvinsky separated from his wife of ten years Myra Shulman; they were divorced two weeks after his 1974 re-election. During his final term he married Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a television journalist. After his 1976 defeat, they relocated to suburban Philadelphia. Together, they raised eleven children, several of whom were adopted.

After serving in Congress, Mezvinsky was United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1977 until 1979.

Mezvinsky unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat held by retiring incumbent Republican Richard Schweiker in 1980, but lost to former Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty.

He then became chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and made a run for state attorney general in 1988. He won the Democratic primary, but lost to Republican Ernie Preate in the general election. He also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1990, losing to incumbent Mark Singel.

Mrs. Mezvinsky

From 1993 to 1995, Edward Mezvinsky's wife Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky served a term in Congress.

In 1998, she was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. In 2000, she was running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate when her husband's business problems forced them to file for bankruptcy and forced her abrupt withdrawal. They divorced several years later.

Marc Mezvinsky

In 2010 Edward Mezvinsky's son, Marc, married Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and former U.S. Senator from New York Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Criminal activities

Beginning in the early 1990s, Mezvinsky started a wide variety of 419 scams. According to a federal prosecutor, Mezvinsky was conned by "just about every different kind of African-based scam we’ve ever seen." The scams promise that the victim will receive large profits, but first a small down payment is required. 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 former political contacts and dropping the name of the Clinton family to convince unwitting marks to give him money.

In March 2001, Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 felony charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Nearly $10 million was involved in the crimes. Shortly after his indictment, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but the judge at his trial disallowed a mental illness defense. He served his time at Federal Prison Camp, Eglin. Mezvinsky, Federal Bureau of Prisons # 55040-066, was released in April 2008. He remained on federal probation until 2011, and as of 2010 still owed $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.