Ex-Lawmaker Admits To Fraud

Former Rep. Edward Mezvinsky pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding friends and family members out of millions of dollars in a pyramid scheme.

The former Democratic congressman from Iowa had long blamed his involvement in the scheme on his manic depression and the effects of an anti-malaria drug he took while on business trips to Africa.

Mezvinsky, 66, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of fraud, admitting he bilked investors who handed over more than $10 millions for deals he claimed to be arranging in Africa.

Prosecutors said they will ask for nine to 11 years in prison at sentencing Jan. 9.

Mezvinsky had been scheduled to stand trial Oct. 7 on 69 counts of defrauding investors, including his ailing mother-in-law, who contributed $309,000. On Friday, he admitted committing all the offenses, even the ones that were dropped as part of the plea bargain.

His trial had been delayed several times because he changed attorneys and because he had hoped to claim mental illness. But U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell halted all mental health defenses in June, saying they "are founded on a miasma of ifs, hypotheses and conjectures."

Mezvinsky's wife, former Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania, was not charged with any wrongdoing.

After serving in Congress from 1973 to 1977, Mezvinsky was the U.S. representative on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. He was later involved in several international business ventures.

By Michael Rubinkam