Rizer Rises Again

June 3, 2005 — -- She has a face you may recognize and a name that may only ring a bell. But once you hear how her multimillion-dollar fortune was squandered at the hands of her stepfather, you won't soon forget her story.

Maggie Rizer grew up in Watertown, N.Y., a world away from New York City, home to fashion magazines and runways. In Watertown, which has the feel of Hometown, USA, her teen years had the normal Americana trappings. She was a star on her local field hockey team and in 1996, she graduated from Watertown High, college-bound without any thought about modeling. But Maggie's early childhood wasn't exactly out of Norman Rockwell.

Her parents divorced when she was young after her father told her mother he was gay.

"I'm very proud of my dad," Rizer said. "But, growing up in a small town in northern New York it's not the easiest thing.

"I remember kids in school used to pick on myself and my sister a lot for our dad being gay, and it was hard but it just, it's OK, you know."

Familial normality was restored to the household when Maggie's mother married John Breen, a Watertown insurance man.

"I had a very good relationship with my stepfather," Rizer said. "I've known him since I was 2."

When Maggie was out of high school, her mother took what Maggie calls a shot in the dark and sent a photo of her daughter to a major modeling agency. The rest, as they say, is runway history.

"Maggie is one of the leading models in the world, and most definitely one of the leading American models," said John Demsey, global president of Estee Lauder/MAC Cosmetics. "She has been on the cover of Italian Vogue. Been shot by all the world's leading photographers. And is generally considered to be the top of the top."

Rizer admits that her modeling career "kind of all fell into place."

"I'd already done the shows in New York and Paris and I then I was in Milan and I got my accounting statement and I was like, I couldn't believe how much money I made -- $30,000 and I was like wow, in one week, I can't believe it," she said.

"I mean I grew up my parents made, you know, $20,000 a year."

As Rizer's unique and varied appeal began to bring in more and more money, it was decided that her stepfather, a businessman, should handle her finances.

"I think I was 18 or 19 at the time and he just gave me every reason why I should, so I, I canceled with the financial manager I'd just signed with and, he started paying my bills, basically," Rizer said.

During the years her stepfather managed her finances, Rizer's career soared even higher. Runway upon runway stretched all the way to a pot of gold. Rizer, who calls herself very frugal, says in over five years she saved about $7 million.

"Maggie was doing many, if not all, of the top shows and working with all of the top photographers, doing editorial, being in the fashion shows," said Nina Garcia, fashion director at Elle magazine. "She was really very much the girl of the moment."

Rizer was one of the lucky few at the peak of a business where appearance is everything.

"Scratch the surface of the fashion industry," says one long-time insider, "and you'll just find more surface."

But Rizer's story was about to gather some depth.

"I went to the bank and put in my PIN and nothing came out," she said. Her balance read zero.

For a long time, she thought she had simply spent all her money.

"I thought for so long that it was that I had spent it and just didn't realize it," she said. "Like oh, I'm so, you know, just not, careful enough."

But her mother and her sister knew where her money was spent.

But there was a dark secret her mother and her sister had just learned and were about to reveal -- Maggie's stepfather had a drinking and a gambling problem. And he had lost virtually all of her money.

He didn't lose it in a high-stakes blowout in Las Vegas. He lost it virtually just down the block from home. Day in and night out, week after week, month after month he was playing Quick Draw -- a popular New York State lottery game with apparently addictive power over Breen. The most you can bet on a Quick Draw ticket is $10. But he reportedly played 50 tickets at a time. And, every five minutes, there's a new round.

"The little ball bounces and hits the numbers and if your numbers are picked you win, but you can lose a lot of money apparently," Rizer said. "It's awful, and the thing is, people are doing this every day."

Breen was a regular at several Watertown watering holes. He allegedly paid for his gambling with checks from Maggie's account, made out to cash or to him.

Maggie says he sent her phony financial statements every month, but the people dealing with Breen should have known what was really happening.

She said Breen's own name as well as hers was misspelled on several checks and that sometimes seven or eight checks were written in one day.

While the bartenders in Watertown noticed his behavior they chose not to say anything.

"People obviously knew, it's just that they chose to ignore it and make more money," Rizer said.

Although hurt and angry, Maggie asked the court for leniency after her stepfather pled guilty to grand larceny last October. He was sentenced to 16 months to four years in state prison.

Last month, Maggie's lawyer sued everyone involved, including owners of the bars where, the suit says, Maggie's millions were gambled away. One of those owners told "20/20" he had no comment at this time. Another did not return our calls.

"It makes me so angry that these men, and the people, everyone involved in this, just kind of thought, oh, she won't notice, you know. Dumb model," she said.

Rizer said coming to grips with her financial situation has been "devastating."

"This is a man that, you know, helped me with my math homework and, you know, took me skiing, taught me how to water-ski.

"I'm still overwhelmed, it's -- and I just, I couldn't handle it, I didn't want to believe it, and then I started blaming myself."

Rizer said she started to think it was in some ways her fault for not going to college.

"If I'd just done what I was supposed to do, this all would, would be fine and my life would be normal," she said.

She said she suffered from depression and didn't want anything to do with fashion or her career. For two years, she set herself adrift from her career and spent aimless time wandering the city.

Depressed over the betrayal by her stepfather, she says she missed her real dad who died of AIDS when Maggie was 14.

"It's sad though because at times like these it's just like, you know, I really could have used him around," she said.

Largely in tribute to her late father, Maggie has, for years, been chairman of the annual fund-raiser called VIVA Glam Casino put on by The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS whose title sponsor is MAC. It's coming up again June 15 and it's the only event in the fashion industry she never gave up.

Maggie "tirelessly dedicates herself to this issue and has taken it to a level that quite honestly, is almost unparalleled by anybody else in the fashion industry," Demsey said.

Rizer's self-imposed exile from the fashion industry ended when close friends and associates kept urging her to return.

And throughout the fashion business lately, there have been whispers of a comeback.

"I have been hearing a buzz," Garcia said. "I'm very pleased to hear that. Actually just today we were talking about her. Because we ran into some pictures of her and we were speaking to a photographer and her name came up."

"A 'comeback' at 27?" Demsey adds. "It's time for another Maggie Rizer moment."

What does Rizer think of this moment in time for her?

"Sometimes the struggles help you get better, and that's what it did for me," she said. "Life's not easy and it wasn't meant to be easy. We're meant to learn lessons. The lesson would be when somebody beats you down, just, stand up taller and prouder and keep pushing forward."