One thing about the $1 billion Ponzi scheme that was Mutual Benefits Corp.: It loved to throw money at politicians. And boy did our fearless leaders lap up the cash.
It gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to elected officials, but nobody benefitted more from Mutual's generosity than state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff.
When she ran against Oliver Parker to win her seat in 2004, a federal 527 political non-profit called Alliance for Florida's Future poured about a half million dollars into attack ads on Parker, paving the way for Bogdanoff's incredibly narrow 7-vote victory.
Well, guess who really funded those attack ads? It was Mutual Benefits Corp.'s unwitting investors -- who are still hoping to get some of their investment back.
The fraudulent viatical company contributed a whopping $525,000 to the Alliance for Florida's Future during the Bogdanoff-Parker race, according to Campaignmoney.com. The brunt of that money was then funneled into the attack ads. There were articles on the "shadowy" Alliance's campaign against Parker published in the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald at the time, but none named Mutual Benefits as the force behind it. So the public, until now, has never been the wiser.
Why did Mutual Benefits Corp. take such an astounding interest in defeating Parker/electing Bogdanoff? That's a good question -- and hopefully federal investigators are trying to find the answer.
