The motorcade of President George W. Bush curled through the lush streets of Bel-Air one night in October 2006 and slowed to a stop at the Colonial Revival mansion of Elliott Broidy.
It was a big moment for Broidy, certifying his arrival in the upper tier of Los Angeles wealth and power. He'd summoned 250 blue-chip donors to hear Bush speak on the lawn, then gather on the tennis court for dinner. The banquet yielded $1 million for the Republican National Committee.
Broidy was founder and chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, a private equity fund. The firm, it turned out, was built on a foundation of corruption. Broidy got caught in 2009 paying kickbacks and pleaded guilty.
He avoided prison, but was fined $18 million. He stepped down from Markstone. He and his wife sold the mansion and moved to a smaller rental in Beverly Hills. Friends stopped returning calls. Foes tried to kick him out of Hillcrest Country Club. In politics, his name for a time was toxic.
"He went from hero to zero," said Matt Gohd, a friend. "It was humiliating."
After years of discreetly forging his way back into the Republican Party's highest ranks, Broidy, 61, is back in the news as he fights a lawsuit by Shera Bechard, a former Playboy playmate.
Broidy, she says, got her pregnant during a lengthy extramarital affair, then reneged on his vow to pay her $1.6 million in exchange for her silence.
In a complaint filed July 6 under seal and released July 31 with portions blacked out at Broidy's request, Bechard says she had an abortion in December.
The Broidy lawyer who helped craft this hush-money arrangement was Michael Cohen, the longtime Donald Trump fixer who paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to stay silent about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
When news broke in April of Broidy's nondisclosure pact with Bechard, the consequences were swift. He resigned as deputy finance chairman of the RNC and gave up his board seat at the Republican Jewish Coalition.
It was a severe blow to a man whose prodigious fundraising for Trump and the GOP had given him entree to the Oval Office despite his history of corruption.
