Edward, a lawyer, was married when he met Chelsea's MIL, Marjorie----they soon got married---but divorced after Edward got conned into several notorious Nigerian-based email financial frauds guaranteed to make you rich.
In his haste to get rich quick, to raise money to get in on these "heaven-sent" investment schemes, Edward defrauded many of his friends and business contacts.....including Marjorie's mother.
Alas, when the Nigerians got their hands on Edwards' money, they did a 23 skidoo. Having failed to come up w/ a ROI, Edward got nabbed by the long arm of the law. Mezvinsky pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 felony counts.. He did hard time----spent 7+ years in a federal prison w/ no chance of parole, and still owes $10 million in restitution.
Democrat Congressman 2014 candidate Marjory Margolies is also no stranger to the dollar disease. Because of her husband's felony convictions, she filed for bankruptcy. But the court would NOT discharge her of her debts, finding that she could NOT explain where some $1 million in assets had vanished, in the previous 4 year span...during Mezvitsky's crime spree.
In their heyday, Ed Mezvinsky and then-wife Marjorie, herself a former Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania (an ex-TV reporter---and recent election loser), were part of the political and social elite in Philadelphia.
The Mezvinskys were close to Bill and Hillary Clinton and were frequent guests at the White House. Prosecutors say Mezvinsky exploited his ties to the Clintons, including his son's relationship with Chelsea, to woo investors to contribute more money to the Nigerian schemes.
In an interview with Des Moines Register from prison in 2003, Mezvinsky said he found the notoriously fraudulent Nigerian Black Ink scam "convincing."
"The Nigerian man came out with a chemical, threw it on the money, and it all turned to $100 bills. He gave me 10 to have them tested back home. And they were real," Mezvinsky told a reporter.
WHAT???
Good God...I've never been mistaken for a rocket scientist but even *I* have understood that those things were frauds.So this family isn't just crooked...they're stupid as well!