Essential Estrogen

Former Iowa Congressman Edward Mezvinsky is scheduled to be released from prison this weekend after serving more than five years for fraud.

Mezvinsky, a lawyer by trade, served Iowa's 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms, from 1973 to 1977. He was ultimately defeated in 1976 by Jim Leach. After serving in Congress, Mezvinsky worked at the United Nations Commission for Human Rights until 1979. He moved to Pennsylvania, married then NBC news reporter Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, and served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Mezvinsky made two more unsuccessful bids for statewide office in Pennsylvania -- attorney general in 1988 and lieutenant governor in 1990.

Margolies-Mezvinsky served in Congress from 1993 to 1995, and was the Pennsylvania Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1998. Her autobiography, "A Woman's Place," was published in 1993. The couple lived an affluent life in an 8,200-square-foot mansion in Narberth, a Philadelphia suburb. The couple raised 11 children, some internationally adopted. Both filed for bankruptcy in 2000 when various lawsuits alleged they owed over $7 million to banks and individuals.

On Sept. 27, 2002, Mezvinsky admitted that he had bilked investors -- including friends, law clients and even his late mother-in-law -- out of more than $10 million. The 129-page indictment was filed in March 2001 and alleged Mezvinsky committed fraud "by misusing attorney escrow accounts held in his name, engaging in schemes involving worthless checks deposited at banks, creating forged bank statements, using false financial statements, tax returns and accountant's letters and giving false testimony under oath." The indictment followed a two-year investigation by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, Postal Service and other agencies. Mezvinsky was sentenced to seven years.

Margolies-Mezvinsky was not charged with any wrongdoing. In fact, Mezvinsky's schemes dipped into her inheritance, her mother's accounts and most of the family's financial resources.

The Mezvinsky's son, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, has often been spotted on the arm of Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who continues to struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination. The families have been close for some time, the two older women basically double-teaming the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women. It was Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky who cast the the crucial 1993 vote that pushed Pres. Clinton's budget package through the House -- a move that most likely cost her re-election. Both Chelsea and Marc attended Stanford and have been close for many years. There is no evidence the Clintons knew of any illegal activity on the part of Mezvinsky.

Mezvinsky, now 71, is currently finishing his sentence in a Pittsburgh halfway house.