ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Nancy Mehta vs Susan McDougal: Whose passion was it anyway?

Arthur J Pais

Was it Susan McDougal's burning passion for money that led her to allegedly embezzle $ 150,000 from symphony conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife Nancy? Or was it Nancy's passion for Susan that eventually turned to bitterness and the filing of a case against her former friend, assistant and bookkeeper?

Five years after the charges of embezzlement and forgery were filed against Bill and Hillary Clinton's friend and former business partner Susan McDougal, a jury in this affluent city near Los Angeles will decide whether McDougal's "burning passion" for money that led her to bilk her employees. If convicted McDougal faces seven years in prison. She has already spent 18 months in jail in a case related to the Clintons and was set free a few months ago due to serious health reasons including back pain

McDougal's lawyer too agrees it was a crime of passion but he blames Nancy Mehta. "The passion here is Nancy Mehta's passion," alleges Mark Gergos, "Her passion for Susan."

"The crime here is what she has done to my client."

Gergos had earlier told reporters that the case was politically motivated, and that Clinton's political foes wanted to harass McDougal whatever way they want so that she would testify against Bill and Hillary Clinton in an unrelated case.

His contention now is that Nancy Mehta wants to mask her own feelings for Susan. Nancy had indeed let McDougal use the credit card to buy things This was an extra compensation for McDougal who was paid $ 3,200 a month as a personal assistant and $ 30 an hour as a bookkeeper, Gergos said. Nancy Mehta, 61, was very lonely after Susan left her, Gergos argues.

Susan McDougal worked as a bookkeeper and assistant to Nancy Mehta between 1989 and 1992. The Mehtas have extensive real estate business in Los Angeles. Zubin Mehta, who lived for most part of that period in Israel and Europe, had faced a marital crisis when Hava Karen Zvi, an Israeli violinist, and the mother of his out-of-wedlock son filed a case against him. It charged him of parental negligence and not paying sufficient money for the boy's welfare. The case was settled out of court.

Prosecutor Jeffrey Semow's version has it that McDougal, 43, enjoyed "living a very high lifestyle" when she married to wealthy Arkansas banker James McDougal. The McDougals were once partners with President Bill Clinton and the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the failed Whitewater land deal. The Mehta case was put on a backburner as McDougal spent 18 months in a prison for her refusal to testify about Clintons before the grand jury in Kenneth Starr's investigation of the Whitewater deals.

"Susan had become accustomed to having a lot of money and spending lots," Semow said. "Then she suddenly lost it all" when her marriage ended.

"The money ran out, but her passion for it remained."

According to the prosecution, McDougal racked up $ 137,325 in fraudulent charges on a Bank of America MasterCard that she clandestinely obtained in her and Nancy Mehta's names. She also allegedly forged Mehta's name on numerous checks. Zubin Mehta was away in Israel and Europe for most part of this period.

Semow says McDougal used the money for dozens of purposes, including the dental work for her mother.

Even if McDougal's claims are true, prosecutors say, she did not report the use of credit card as income. Hence the charge of evasion of income tax.

Semow told the jury that Zubin Mehta had no acumen for business and his wife Nancy was "a bit better" but essentially "clueless" about business matters. She depended considerably on Susan McDougal. Semow said some of Susan McDougal's former friends had warned Nancy against her. But Nancy continued trusting Susan till she received a call from Bank of America in 1992 whether she wanted to increase the credit limit on her MasterCard held in her name. That was the first time Nancy Mehta knew of the existence of the card, Semow said. When she questioned Susan McDougal, the latter had no answer. She was dismissed the same day.

Tell us what you think of this report