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Joyti Found Guilty!
The verdict is in on Joyti De-Laurey, the secretary at Goldman Sachs who embezzled millions of dollars because she was so obviously worth it. I wrote about her a few weeks ago, because it looked like it could be a very interesting trial. No reason to link back - I'll reprint the gist of my earlier comments.
You know, it's true. Good help is hard to find these days. A lot of it's economics of course. Pink-collar labor doesn't usually pay much, so if you do find someone good, you need to show the cash to keep them on the job.
That's certainly the case with Joyti De-Laurey, who's boss at Goldman Sachs gave her two million dollars as "a reward for me being me." Now how they expected the poor girl to get by on that is anyone's guess, but I don't think that anyone would blame her for writing herself a few checks and money orders - about eight million worth. Come on, her boss, Ron Beller, said she could. Beller "made it very clear that he would always look after me financially and what was his was mine and I would never have to worry about money concerns as long as I worked for him.''
Bloomberg gives us the defense strategy, laid out in court yesterday.
De-Laurey was authorized to take the money from Mead, Beller and Moses, her lawyer Jeremy Dein QC told Southwark Crown Court. The amount De-Laurey received from her bosses is beyond people's "wildest dreams,'' Dein said.
"It will be her evidence that having been given the chance to lead the life of a millionaire, she snapped it up,'' he told the court. "And who wouldn't? This was honest greed, not theft, or deception.''
"Her direct bosses were wealthy to the point that is really the stuff of fairytales,'' Dein told the court. "The monies she received from them were little more than pocket money'' in their lifestyles, he said, citing Beller's expenditure of 90,000 pounds on personal travel in 2000 as an example.
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Good old fashioned honest greed, there's no law against that is there? This is in England, and I know I've heard Sean Hannity say that all the Eurotrash believes in income redistribution. And besides, she was an indispensable work. She organized travel during the school holidays, and some light typing, and uh, I think I already mentioned she wrote checks, didn't I? And, oh yeah, she helped out her other boss, Scott Mead, by covering for him when he wanted to see his mistress during business hours. Lied for him not just to his clients and co-workers, but to his wife as well, who would always call just to find that he was "in a meeting on the tenth floor." Or a "conference call." Whatever.
"The trial continues today, and might just be worth following," was the last thing I wrote. Well, it wasn't. As trials go, this one was pretty boring. The 'honest greed' defense was a total bust. But the Brits loved it, kind of like a Robin Hood story. In fact, as she awaits sentencing, Joyti is becoming something of a folk hero.
The Guardian writes that "if there was any justice in this world, Joyti would not only be a free woman, she'd be given a medal for services to the community."
True, she did filch over £4m from the bank accounts of three financial whiz-persons. Stealing things is wrong, as a rule, although if De-Laurey had confined herself to a few Post-it Notes, then she wouldn't have been splashed all over the newspapers. But here's the thing: De-Laurey has single-handedly put forward the best case for higher income taxes since Pitt the Younger and, at the same time, done a big favour to the shareholders and investors in Goldman Sachs and other mega-banks.
Frankly, it was much better for the economy that the £4m was in circulation, providing employment and creating profits, being recycled into other hands. True, De-Laurey did spend the money on Cartier jewellery, but don't kid yourself the aggrieved trio were going to use it to help the homeless. For all the talk of De-Laurey wanting to "fund a lavish lifestyle", what do you think the trio were using it for?
Now this is fun: The Evening Standard has a photo gallery of some of the goodies Joyti bought; the villa in Cyprus, the yacht, the Aston Martin, and more. I can't link to it directly, but just click here and go to the bottom of the page. The girl knows how to shop!
(Bonus quote: When her husband was asked about her boatloads of diamond jewelry, he explained "She's Indian, all Indian women love jewelry.")
And in the end, even her obscenely wealth boss, Scott Mead, had to give her props, saying "Mrs. De-Laurey was the Picasso of conmen. She was brilliant." |
