Joyti De-Laurey saw the kind of riches her bosses enjoyed, and decided it was the life for her, writes Sheila O'Flanagan
There's a chorus in a song by Queen which says, "I want it all. And I want it now." What happens when you spend so much time around the mega-rich that you suddenly decide that you do want it all and, what's more, you have a way to get it?
In a riveting trial lasting three months, Joyti De-Laurey was found guilty of stealing £4.5 (€6.7) million from her banker bosses at Goldman Sachs in London. As a personal assistant (PA) in the financial firm, she had access to the accounts of bank executives and decided that she could get a lot more fun out of the money than they could. After all, it was simply lying there in various investment accounts. And the bankers, extremely wealthy after the 1999 flotation of Goldman Sachs, wouldn't even notice it was gone.
The case shines a fascinating light on the lives of the super-rich and their employees. De-Laurey's bosses, Scott Mead, Jennifer Moses and Jennifer's husband, Ron Beller, were in the league of people who could spend (as in Ron Beller's case) £86,000 (€128,000) a year on personal travel without blinking an eye. Some of the £86,000 (€128,000) went on a trip to Rome where Beller paid De-Laurey £5,000 (€7,500) to organise his wife's 40th birthday party. But money shouldn't really have been a problem in De-Laurey's household, since City PAs are well paid, but perhaps when you're working for people who don't notice £3 million missing from an account, you get a different perspective on wealth.
We regularly get glimpses into the lives of the rich and famous through the pages of celebrity magazines and courtesy of a wide variety of TV shows whose presenters like to give us a tantalising peek at the kind of lives other people live. In a different era, we knew that there were people wildly better off than ourselves - it just never occurred to us that we too could one day own wardrobes of designer clothes or six-carat diamonds or have hot tubs in our back garden.
Yet all of these things are available in Ireland today. And all of them are marketed to us - because we're worth it. And when we see wannabe celebrities making a lot of money by appearing on ever more embarrassing reality TV shows, we suddenly think, why shouldn't we have these things when we work hard if someone else can have them for doing nothing at all?
De-Laurey decided that she was worth it. Maybe she felt that money had come too easily to her bosses courtesy of the flotation. So why shouldn't she have a piece of the action? At first, though, she started off small, following an interest-free loan from Jennifer Moses to cover medical expenses. She repaid the loan by taking money from Jennifer's account and high-tailing it to an exclusive Beverley Hills hotel to recuperate. She began writing "letters to God" (a notebook found in her desk) in which she said, "I need one more helping of what's mine on my return . . ." Her plan seemed to be to take just another £40,000 (€60,000). But she wasn't able to stop. Eventually she spent over £380,000 (€568,000) on Cartier diamonds, £175,000 (€261,000) on an Aston Martin car and £150,000 (€224,000) on a powerboat, as well as investing in a string of properties.
Meanwhile, Mead, Moses and Beller all failed to notice that the money was missing from their accounts. Presumably they never bothered looking at the balances, having more than enough available cash to spend on personal travel and birthday parties without dipping into their savings. This highlights the big difference between the super-rich and ordinary people. We know when money goes missing from our accounts. Sure, it's usually because we've been persuaded to part with it for another must-have item that we don't really need, but we do know we've spent it.
Nevertheless, it's a bit embarrassing for City bankers to have to admit that they never checked their balances. Many executives allow trusted employees access to their accounts so that they can run their lives for them. Their PAs will never be looked at in the same light again.
It must have been frustrating for De-Laurey all the same. She was going into the office every day but none of her colleagues could envy her new wealth. The Aston Martin was on order so she didn't actually get to park it in the employees' car park which might have been a bit of a giveaway. But if you've managed to blow £380,000 (€568,000) on bling, surely you're going to want to wear it. Yet to have the PA wandering into the office dripping with diamonds might lead to a few questions being asked. So when was she going to get the opportunity to flaunt her new acquisitions?
When she moved to Cyprus, it seemed. If you're going to skim £4.5 (€6.7) million you have to have a get-out plan. Joyti spent some of it on a £750,000 (€1.1 million) seafront property in Cyprus which was going to be her retirement home.
She won't be going to Cyprus now, though. She might have wanted it all, she might have had all it for a time, but she doesn't have it now.