Miami Herald: Broward fundraiser’s indictment portrays a life of sex, lies, power

The Miami Herald published this article on October 4, 2009

BY JAY WEAVER, BETH REINHARD AND MARC CAPUTO
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

Before he took a detour into politics, Alan Mendelsohn was already the epitome of success.

Northwestern University medical school grad. Thriving eye-surgery practice. Growing family attending private schools. Nice home in Hollywood’s Emerald Hills neighborhood.

Mendelsohn, a brainy guy with an earnest manner, strayed into politics a couple of decades ago through the Florida Society of Ophthalmologists.

He used the little-known group to raise his profile in the prominent Florida Medical Association, launching an improbable role as a tour-de-force political fundraiser on a first-name basis with Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist and other top Republicans.

Today, Mendelsohn, 51, is accused of being a crook.

An indictment returned by a Fort Lauderdale federal grand jury last week portrays the eye doctor as a boastful rainmaker turned criminal opportunist: He is accused of defrauding doctors and other major contributors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations. He led them to believe he could perform behind-the-scenes miracles in Tallahassee, the indictment says.

Mendelsohn, who pleaded not guilty in federal court Wednesday, used the money to support a more than comfortable lifestyle, prosecutors say. He spent it on himself, his mistress and his four children’s private schools — including donating $250,000 in political funds to his medical school alma mater when his son sought admission, the indictment says. It is illegal to divert political contributions to personal use.

He also conspired with an unnamed “accomplice” to set up a series of political action committees and corporations to conceal the illegal diversion of donations to state lawmakers — including one unnamed public official who received $87,000, the indictment says.

In another instance, he’s accused of moving $150,000 through one corporation to his mistress, “falsely” representing to the IRS that it was for a public education program advocating eye-cancer screening for kids. In all, records show Mendelsohn raised more than $2 million for his three political action committees.

POLITICAL POWER

Mendelsohn, who declined to be interviewed after his court appearance and did not return a phone message at his home Friday, is described by many political observers as a smart doctor consumed with the power of politics.

He frequently referred to politics as “smash-mouth football” and would talk about going after political rivals with baseball bats, Tallahassee insiders said. He used to say that raising money for politicians and then pumping them for favors was like “trading baseball cards,” they said.

Mendelsohn displayed remarkable bravado, say those who know him. When he resigned as legislative director for the Florida Society of Ophthalmologists in February, Mendelsohn was fully aware he was under investigation by the Justice Department. Yet, the following month, Mendelsohn, a Republican, hosted a fundraiser at his home for former GOP House Speaker Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate bid.

“If we help Marco Rubio become elected to the U.S. Senate, he could easily serve several decades, gaining rank, while being a staunch ally of ours,” Mendelsohn e-mailed potential donors invited to the reception.

In Tallahasseee, where politicians clamored for the big checks Mendelsohn could deliver from fellow doctors, the button-downed doctor could roll up his sleeves and be a cowboy. He liked to talk trash and wasn’t afraid to make enemies, say those who know him.

“I hated the guy,” said former Democratic Sen. Steve Geller of Hallandale Beach, who won a notoriously ugly 1998 race to a Mendelsohn-backed candidate, Ellyn Bogdanoff. “He would do whatever it takes to win.”

Bogdanoff, who described Mendelsohn as a “friend,” declined to talk about their relationship.

Mendelsohn typically backed candidates friendly to the effort by medical doctors to protect their turf from less-educated healthcare professionals. For example, he pushed for 2001 legislation that would have required eye-surgery patients to get follow-up care only from an ophthalmologist or licensed doctor, not an optometrist. It failed.

“His biggest issue was that if you want to practice medicine, you should go to medical school,” said Geller, who added that he and Mendelsohn reconciled after the bitter 1998 race. “He raised millions of dollars and made himself a power broker. I think he got caught up in the trappings.”

Bobby Davis — whose company, Maitland-based Crow-Segal Management, once ran the Florida Society of Ophthalmologists — came to know Mendelsohn a decade ago when the trade group grew worried about the potential threat of optometrists.

“Alan came to see himself as ophthalmology’s white knight crusading against evil, and what started as a healthy passion to get involved became something darker and kind of crazy,” Davis said. “He became more arrogant and humorless, and the whiff of political power went to his head.”

Others agreed.

“When he started out in this process, I think he did it for the right reasons, but somewhere along the way he lost his purpose,” said West Palm Beach-based political consultant Randy Nielsen, who worked with Mendelsohn on some bare-knuckled legislative races. “You could almost trace it to when contributions started flying in and somehow the lust of power took over.”

One of Mendelsohn’s most important relationships was with former state Senate President Ken Pruitt, who resigned abruptly last spring.

“Whatever Ken wanted him to do, he did,” said former Sen. Debby Sanderson of Fort Lauderdale, who did not seek reelection after Pruitt and other Republican leaders redrew her voting district to favor a Mendelsohn-backed candidate, Jeff Atwater. “Ken needed to raise money for the presidency, and Alan wanted votes.”

Pruitt told a Herald/Times reporter he would not comment about Mendelsohn. He has said he received campaign contributions from the doctor but is not involved with the federal investigation.

Still, Mendelsohn was tight enough with Pruitt and Gov. Crist that both men wrote letters recommending the University of Florida medical school admit the doctor’s son in 2007. He was accepted.

MANIPULATIVE REP

Despite his high-level connections, Mendelsohn earned the ire of the Tallahassee lobbying corps by frequently advocating for people and apparent clients while failing to register as a lobbyist.

Case in point: Mutual Benefits Corp., a Fort Lauderdale life insurance company headed by Joel Steinger. According to the indictment, Mendelsohn convinced Steinger to donate more than $1.5 million to Mendelsohn’s political action committees on the promise that the eye doctor could help kill legislation that would hurt Mutual Benefits.

Mendelsohn also told Steinger he could get Crist and other senior officials to hinder a state investigation into Mutual Benefits, the indictment charges.

Steinger worked hand-in-hand with Mendelsohn’s influence-peddling efforts on behalf of Mutual Benefits.

But Nielsen, one of the state’s top political strategists, said Mendelsohn would manipulate donors into believing he could fix their problems.

“He conned the con men,” Nielsen said. “He’s the Bernie Madoff of 527s,” referring to issue-oriented political groups that raise and spend campaign funds.

In addition to lobbying on eye-care matters, Mendelsohn sometimes popped up on other issues, such as gaming legislation.

He was often seen as overbearing, and would even yell at lawmakers.

The head of the Senate’s health budget committee, Republican Durell Peaden of Crestview, recalls a heated conversation with Mendelsohn in the past few years. He said Mendelsohn tried to cajole him on a budget issue.

“I told him to go to hell,” Peaden said. “I’ll tell a governor to go to hell if he yells at me like that. I’m from the country, I grew up fighting in parking lots as a boy. When someone jumps on me, I’ll jump back on him.”

Peaden said Mendelsohn, drunk with money and access to power, forgot what many in power fail to remember: “In this process, in the end, no individual really matters that much.”