A love for politics can graduate from infatuation to felony without a body spotting the line that has been crossed.
Or perhaps the line is obvious, but the need to rub elbows with the great and powerful becomes so addictive that the trespasser considers it worth the risk.
Last month, disbarred attorney Michael Berlon, 55, was quietly sentenced by a federal judge to 63 months in prison for a five-year stealing binge that cost friends and clients $2 million.
The spree paralleled the Gwinnett County lawyer’s pursuit of the chairmanship of the state Democratic party. A first attempt for the office failed in 2008. A second attempt in January 2011 was successful — and Berlon took possession of “an unpaid position that carried considerable status, responsibility and time demands,” according to one court filing.
That’s when the stealing accelerated. “The accounting and financial practices at the firm, never disciplined, became unethical, then criminal during the time he sought and obtained the chairmanship,” the same document says.
Berlon’s downfall has been a hushed affair. Berlon, of course, has been disinclined to discuss it, except as the court has required. Creditors have stayed quiet, hoping for pennies-on-the-dollar compensation.
Among Georgia Democrats, Berlon has become a nonperson, perhaps because he came to represent the nadir that followed the nadir. A hard-core, lifelong Democrat with strong labor support, Berlon was the man his party turned to after Nathan Deal crushed former Gov. Roy Barnes’ attempt at a comeback in 2010.
Berlon loved being chairman. His Facebook account is filled with photos of him posing with fellow Democrats, both the famous and rank and file. But he wasn’t very good at his no-pay job, his attorney confessed in a biographical document that argued for a softer punishment.
“With his new position, Mr. Berlon enjoyed the status of a leader in the state party, but the job came with considerable responsibility and time demands,” the pre-sentencing document states. “Although he had been involved in Gwinnett for almost a decade, he was still an outsider to leaders in Atlanta city politics as well as … many institutional leaders within the state party. In many respects, he was in over his head: not fluent with the machinations of wider party politics, without connections to national or state figures of influence, and swimming in political waters that were out of his depth.”
The harder Berlon worked at his chairmanship job, the more he neglected his law office, and the more he was required to steal to support himself.
“Mr. Berlon and many of his associates believed … that his ascendancy in party politics would continue and inevitably result in an increase in his income,” according to the pre-sentencing document. “In the meantime, his lifestyle became expansive as he sought to demonstrate his success.”
The State Bar of Georgia caught on in mid-2013. Berlon quickly gave up his license to practice law. He was pushed out of his much-coveted party chairmanship in June of that year. Bankruptcy followed the next spring, with lawsuits and an indictment close on its heels.
Berlon pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in February and has been wearing an ankle bracelet ever since.
There is the matter of where the money went. Court documents say Berlon burned through most of it, but they make mention of a $65,000 cache — which has been frozen — and “an interest in a Paris apartment.” We’re told that the latter is a 15-minute walk from Notre Dame Cathedral with an excellent boulevard view.
This spring, creditors went after the $69,500 that Berlon paid in 2011 and 2012 to Duke University to see his son through medical school. With the court’s permission, Berlon and his ankle bracelet were in Durham, N.C., this spring as his son was awarded his residency.
There is also the possibility that many Democrats benefited from Berlon’s illegal largesse.
Prosecutors said his crime spree extended from August 2008 to July 2013. Over that period, Berlon and his wife, Susan, gave more than $41,000 to Democratic candidates for state and federal offices. (On her donations, Susan Berlon listed herself as an employee of her husband’s law firm. She was not charged.)
Berlon’s heaviest political spending occurred in 2010 as he prepared for his second chairmanship bid. Of $20,900 in contributions that year, Berlon and his wife put $15,300 behind Carol Porter’s sudden bid for lieutenant governor. Porter was the wife of DuBose Porter, the former House leader who lost his primary bid for governor to Barnes. Carol Porter was defeated by Republican incumbent Casey Cagle that November.
The Porters divorced shortly after the election. DuBose Porter, who succeeded Berlon as Democratic Party chairman, declined to comment.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Berlon also gave $10,000 to the Georgia Democratic party in May 2012, a period when creditors say the chairman was insolvent.
Federal officials tell us Berlon has yet to be absorbed into the federal prison system. A call to his cellphone went unanswered. He has lost his home and his occupation. He lives under a 9 p.m. -to-8 a.m. curfew. To fill the time, he shoots photographs for calendars, according to one court record.
His lawyer argued that Berlon’s tall fall from grace could be factored into a lighter sentence, but the judge didn’t buy it.
Old hands will tell you the best cure for the political bug is embalming fluid. But five years and three months behind bars, pondering an infatuation turned to dust, surely runs a close second.
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