Edward Mezvinsky had a fruitful political career between the late ’60s and early ’80s, when he served as a representative in Iowa before being elected as a U.S. congressman. After leaving Congress in 1977, Mezvinsky served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and later as the Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, a role he filled until 1986. But Mezvinsky’s career took a downturn when he lost two consecutive campaigns in Pennsylvania, first for the Senate and then state attorney general.
A lawyer by trade, Mezvinsky left politics and turned to business. His business acumen, however, proved a lot less sharp. In January 2000, Mezvinsky filed for bankruptcy, according to the Washington Post. At that point, it became clear the Mezvinskys had been in financial trouble. But that was just the beginning of the story. In turned out that Mezvinsky had fallen for a series of advance-fee scams tracing back to Nigerian conmen, CNN Money reported in 2002.
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To pay for his losses, Mezvinsky defrauded banks, businesses, friends and even family of a total of $10.4 million, according to his 2001 indictment, The Associated Press reported. Mezvinsky pleaded guilty to 31 counts of fraud in September 2002 and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison the following January, according to the New York Times. He served five years, being released in 2008, just a year after Chelsea Clinton and his son Marc announced their engagement. He remained on probation until 2011.
