Salomon Melgen poses for a photograph with President Barack Obama at a 2010 fundraiser. | Photo by Ruth David Menendez donor courted Obama, Reid

Salomon Melgen had a knack for going straight to the top.

He posed for pictures with President Barack Obama, flew Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on his private jet and sought advice on a port security deal from an ex-CIA agent who helped lead the hunt for Osama bin Laden, POLITICO has learned.


Melgen, a wealthy South Florida eye doctor and investor, has seen his flashy forays onto the political stage backfire in spectacular fashion in the past few months. Federal investigators are probing his business dealings. He’s at the center of the controversy over Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

And now, new details show that Melgen also courted other leading politicians, including two of the top Democrats in Washington.

There is no evidence that either Obama or Reid inappropriately sought to aid Melgen.

( PHOTOS: Salomon Melgen)

Melgen briefly schmoozed Obama at a 2010 fundraiser Melgen co-hosted benefiting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Menendez chaired at the time. The president posed with his arm around Melgen in a photo obtained exclusively by POLITICO.

“Everybody gets a photo-op, but the host committee just gets a few extra minutes to meet with the president,” said Seema Sharma, who hosted the fundraiser at her family home in the Washington suburbs.

Melgen “shook hands with [Obama] and told him he was from Florida,” Sharma said. It was “just small talk, chitchat. There’s just not enough time to have a detailed discussion or any lengthy conversation.”

But Melgen wasn’t happy with the return on his investment — co-hosting required the maximum $30,400 donation to the DSCC — according to a source who travels in the same Miami political circles.

“He had mentioned to me once that he had given all this money to go to an Obama fundraiser, and Obama didn’t even give him the time of day,” said the source, who didn’t want to be identified revealing the contents of private conversations. “He went up to talk to him, and he felt very slighted by the president. He was pretty angry.”

The White House declined to comment for this report.

Melgen also tried courting the top Senate Democrat: Harry Reid of Nevada.

Melgen flew Reid on his company’s private plane last summer to Boston and back for a Majority PAC event, Reid’s office confirmed to POLITICO.

Majority PAC, a super PAC closely linked to Reid that benefits Senate Democratic candidates, reported reimbursing Melgen’s ophthalmology company $4,160 for “travel” last summer. That filing does not specify who did the traveling, when it occurred or the destination, but Reid’s office said that payment was for Reid’s trip to Boston.

“Sen. Reid took a flight that was in full compliance with FEC rules and fully paid for,” said his spokesman Adam Jentleson.

( WATCH: Menendez: Highlights of a scandal)

Flight records show that Melgen’s plane flew from his home airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday afternoon, June 17, then took off at 7:15 the next morning, June 18, en route to Boston. It stayed on the ground less than three hours, before lifting off to return to Reagan, which requires special security clearance for private planes.

Melgen also donated $700,000 last year to Majority PAC, which spent $582,500 supporting Menendez’s 2012 reelection campaign — which Menendez won by 18 percentage points.

Some rich folks looking for special treatment would work through a lobbyist with experience navigating government bureaucracy.

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Not Melgen — he was his own lobbyist, with access to lots of cash and a private jet owned by his company.

He went to top officials about the Dominican government’s reluctance to implement a $500 million port cargo-screening contract with one of his companies and to challenge the finding that another of his companies overbilled Medicare.

While he was glad-handing politicians, Melgen was living the high life. He was driven around South Florida by a chauffeur in a customized Audi A8 and invited all manner of politicos to his mansion in the Dominican Republic.

Melgen keeps an enviable collection of photos with politicians — including one of him golfing with Bill Clinton — and bragged of using his plane to transport the rapper Pitbull to a super PAC fundraiser at the Democratic National Convention last summer, according to sources who know him.

Yet Democratic fundraisers interviewed for this story say Melgen fits a particular model of naive, high-maintenance donor: the type that expects politicians to help further their business or philosophical interests but don’t know enough about the process to figure out if they’re getting anything for their money.

Not only that, his business dealings are under scrutiny.

The feds are investigating the port deal, Melgen’s Medicare billings and allegations that he and Menendez patronized prostitutes in the Dominican Republic — though Dominican police this week said that three women were paid to falsely claim they had sex for money with the senator. The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into flights Menendez took on Melgen’s plane. A grand jury is investigating Menendez’s activities to help Melgen’s business interests, The Washington Post reported.

The port deal has been held up by Dominican political infighting, Melgen was ordered to repay $8.9 million to the federal government in Medicare overcharges, and a Latino news website he created — which had chronicled his political hobnobbing and defended him against bad press — recently laid off several key employees, including its Washington reporter.

As his legal worries mount, Melgen has retained Washington white-collar criminal defense lawyer Kirk Ogrosky of Arnold & Porte r and top New York crisis communications firm Kekst and Company to either replace or supplement his Miami lawyers, including one whose website features legal jokes (“Q: What do you call a lawyer gone bad? A: Senator”) and a T-shirt emblazoned with his motto (“ Keep Your Mouth SHUT … And You Won’t Get CAUGHT!”).

“Dr. Melgen has been a friend and supporter of Sen. Menendez for over 20 years,” Ogrosky said. “We are confident that Dr. Melgen acted appropriately at all times.”

Asked about the reported grand jury investigation, Michelle Alvarez of the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Florida said: “We cannot discuss, confirm or deny the existence of this matter, or non-existence.”

The limits of friendship

Menendez’s office declined to comment on the record for this story, but the senator has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

“Every day, more evidence emerges that the false smears against Senator Menendez are nothing but an elaborate campaign orchestrated by Republican political operatives,” Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright said in a statement to POLITICO this month. “As we have said all along, we welcome any review because Senator Menendez’s actions have always been appropriate, and we believe the facts will confirm that.”

Melgen’s relationship with Menendez started much like any other choreographed donor-politician interaction — at a political function in the early 1990s, when Menendez was in the House of Representatives.

Over the years, Melgen and his family donated nearly $1 million to Menendez’s campaigns and related committees. Menendez also has vacationed frequently with Melgen and his wife at their Dominican Republic mansion, and Melgen has regularly visited the senator, now chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, at his home in New Jersey.

Menendez’s office says the senator has flown on Melgen’s jet three times, and earlier this year he paid $58,500 to reimburse a Melgen company for the cost of two previously undisclosed trips on the plane to the Dominican Republic. The DSCC in 2010 paid $5,380.50 to Melgen’s eye care company for Menendez to fly to Puerto Rico and then to the Dominican Republic for fundraisers.

In 2011, Melgen hosted a star-studded fundraiser at his North Palm Beach, Fla., home for Menendez. Attendees included Menendez, Sharma and her husband, as well as retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was then running for Senate in Texas, and the world-famous Mexican balladeer José José.

Melgen also hosted or co-hosted a 2009 DSCC fundraiser in South Florida and a 2010 event for the committee at his Dominican home.

But his political outreach demonstrated both the potential and the limits of such politician-patron relationships.

Melgen complained that he couldn’t bring his issues with Medicare directly to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said the Miami-based source.

“He was ranting about HHS and Sebelius not understanding and not wanting to listen to him and not giving him a hearing,” the source said.

But on at least two occasions, Menendez personally raised concerns with top Medicare officials about a ruling from HHS that Melgen owed the government $8.9 million for over -billing, Menendez’s office told the Post.

In August 2011, Melgen bought a major stake in a company called ICSSI that holds a contract to inspect cargo going into and out of Dominican ports, using a company with an oddly spelled name — Boarder Support Services — that he formed a couple years earlier for the purpose. The contract could be worth as much as $500 million over 10 years, but opponents in the Dominican government have blocked its implementation, claiming it was a sweetheart deal.

Melgen sought the help of Pedro Pablo Permuy, a former Menendez staffer who worked for the Defense and State departments, and Marty Martin, a former CIA official. George W. Bush’s intelligence director credits “Marty M.” with leading the operation that captured Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Martin, who is featured in a forthcoming HBO documentary on the hunt for bin Laden, was a central figure in a lawsuit brought by the brother-in-law of Jordan’s King Abdullah II against an American oil billionaire for whom Martin worked after leaving the agency. Martin was not a defendant in the case, which also involved a Jordanian national who – separate from the case – was involved in the Dominican port contract.

Miami political sources say the 2011 Menendez fundraiser at Melgen’s house was attended by both Martin and Permuy, who had worked for a tech company owned by Sharma’s family and co-hosted the 2010 Obama event at her house.

Melgen brought Permuy into the port deal to provide security expertise, Vinicio Castillo Seman, a powerful Dominican lawyer and a Melgen cousin, was reported to have said at a Santo Domingo news conference last month. Castillo dialed that back this month, telling POLITICO through a translator that he had “no evidence that [Permuy] is involved.”

Permuy could not be reached for comment. Martin declined requests for comment, but Menendez has advocated publicly for the deal.

At a July 2012 Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing, Menendez signaled displeasure with the Dominican government’s unwillingness to honor the deal. He urged Commerce and State department officials, including Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez, to “send a message that you cannot with impunity go ahead and violate those agreements.”

Menendez did not mention Melgen or his company by name, but Sanchez was already familiar with Melgen and Permuy. About one month before the congressional hearing, Melgen and Sanchez posed for a picture in New Jersey at the annual meeting of a trade association called the U.S.-Spain Council run by Permuy, chaired by Menendez and funded in part by one of Melgen’s companies.

A few months before that, Melgen, Menendez and Sanchez were photographed together at the annual gala for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Washington.

One of the main reasons for paying to sponsor groups like the U.S.-Spain Council is to meet people who can help your business, said Al Zapanta , a founding member of the council who met Melgen at the 2012 forum, which then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also attended.

“I don’t think that the U.S.-Spain Council was his target, per se, because the U.S.-Spain Council has no dealings in the Dominican Republic,” said Zapanta, who also heads the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. “Now, was he there to try to network? It’s pretty obvious, because Frank Sanchez was there.”

Sanchez did not respond when asked via email what he and Melgen talked about at those two meetings.

A Commerce official told POLITICO: “The Commerce Department has not taken any action on” the port deal. When asked whether the State Department had weighed in, an official there declined to comment, citing “the ongoing Senate Ethics investigation.”

Voxxi: expanding Melgen’s political footprint

Photos of Melgen and Menendez with Sanchez likely would not have become public — except that they were featured on Melgen’s Latino news site, Voxxi.

The site has also run stories defending Melgen and Menendez and suggesting the need for tougher Dominican port security to combat drug trafficking.

Voxxi launched in February 2012 with a glitzy affair at Washington’s Newseum attended by Menendez, some B-list actors and Florida Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, both of whom have received donations from Melgen.

The company had a major presence at both the NALEO gala and the New Jersey trade forum, where Melgen introduced the site and predicted it would help Latinos “access the main influencers of this nation: corporate, political and cultural.”

Editor in chief Emilio Sanchez said Melgen did not start the site to advance his causes or expand his political footprint.

“This is nothing about politics. It’s about business media. I’m a reporter, and I’m a news media type from the last many years. My only purpose is to try run a media business and to be as much independent and without any political agenda,” said Sanchez, who worked at a Spanish-language wire service in the U.S. for years before teaming with Melgen to start Voxxi.

“I have enough political connections in Washington. I know Washington. I know how it works,” Sanchez added. “I don’t need Sen. Menendez or Dr. Melgen to have political relationships with anyone in Washington.”

Voxxi recently laid off several key employees, including its managing editor and Washington reporter. One of the laid -off employees said “it was due to some financial difficulties,” possibly linked to Melgen’s problems.

Sanchez denied Voxxi has financial problems. “We have enough funding,” he said. “We are expanding and looking for different business opportunities.”

Welcome to the majors

Melgen reportedly made some serious money as an early investor in a tech security company that was purchased by LexisNexis for $775 million, but he also has lost tens of millions of dollars over the past decade through a variety of investments.

Melgen’s filed a series of lawsuits alleging he was scammed by financial advisers and institutions. And he took things a step further, when — spurred by millions of dollars in losses he attributed to “the greed, carelessness and indifference of Bank of America” — he started a group called “ Too Big To Care 2012” intended to piggyback on the Occupy Wall Street protests.

While Melgen hired an elite public relations firm to promote the group, it appears to have quickly faded away.

Melgen’s friends and family cast him as almost an incidental player in all the controversies swirling around him. The real targets, they say, are Menendez and Dominican politicians pushing for tighter security at their ports.

“It’s a union of interests in the Dominican Republic with interests in the United States,” charged Juarez Castillo Seman, Melgen’s first cousin, who alleges the prostitution story was ginned up by powerful Dominican families involved in the drug trade, who fear that Melgen’s port plan, which now appears a long shot to be implemented, could cut into business.

Castillo’s family has led the anti-narcotics effort in the Dominican. His brother Vinicio Castillo Seman was also named in the prostitution allegations and has filed a complaint with the Dominican authorities seeking a criminal investigation into the source of the prostitution reports, which were first published by the conservative Daily Caller website.

Longtime friend Juan Frias, a fellow South Florida doctor who met Melgen in college in the Dominican Republic, said Melgen didn’t get involved in politics for the glory or to pad his pockets.

“Salomon came from a rich family in the D.R.,” Frias said. “He doesn’t need to be in this country or to have access to politicians to be glamorous.”

Frias compared Melgen’s situation to that of Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

“Remember, when you are in the major leagues, you have to play in the major leagues,” he said. “When you are successful, you are always going to find people who are going to try to dismantle you. And you have to know that, and be ready for it. When Alex Rodriguez is playing baseball with the Yankees, it is not the same as when he is playing for the Rangers. Now he is going to be exposed to everything.”

M. Scott Mahaskey contributed to this report.