City PA found guilty

A City secretary was today found guilty of stealing £4.3 million from her bosses.

Joyti De-Laurey, 35, used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle of jewellery, fast cars and a string of properties.

She sat impassively in the dock as the jury found her guilty of 20 charges. The jury did not believe her story that she was paid millions by her boss at investment bank Goldman Sachs, Scott Mead, to keep secret his affair with a high-flying City lawyer. They also rejected her claim that other bosses were so impressed by her efficiency and discretion that they had simply given her the money.

Today multi-millionaire Mr Mead branded her "despicable" and "vindictive" and said she had dragged his name through the mud to try to escape jail. She now faces up to 10 years in prison. Her husband, chauffeur Anthony De-Laurey, 50, was found guilty on four charges of money-laundering. Her mother, north London GP Devi Schahhou, was also found guilty on four similar charges.

Only when the guilty verdicts on her mother were read out did De-Laurey slowly turn to face her. A friend in the public gallery began

sobbing. De-Laurey, her husband and mother were being sentenced later today.

The court heard that civil proceedings brought by Goldman Sachs to recover the stolen millions were at an advanced stage.

De Laurey, who went from running a sandwich bar to becoming a trusted PA, claimed that the millions she stole represented little more than pocket money to the fabulously wealthy executives at Goldman Sachs and that they allowed her to forge their signatures on cheques and money transfers.

At least £870,000 of the money has never been least £870,000 of the money has not yet been traced. Detectives are deeply sceptical of her claims that she simply gave the money to charity. They believe she has hidden it for when she comes out of prison.

In one of her deceptions De-Laurey claimed she had cancer. Her bosses granted her sick leave for a hysterectomy in July 2001 and offered to pay for the best medical help money could buy.

But De-Laurey was not lying in a hospital bed. She spent three weeks living it up at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills where she ordered a sports car for her husband.

The case has been enormously damaging to the reputation of both Goldman Sachs and Mr Mead who had more

than £3 million stolen from him. The investment bank which handles billions of pounds of clients' money, was shown to have ludicrously lax internal financial controls.

With nothing more than a forged signature, De-Laurey was able to siphon off millions into her own bank accounts without an eyebrow being raised. Mr Mead said after the verdicts: "Joyti De-Laurey has mounted a vindictive and implausible defence in which she and her team of lawyers attempted to put the victims on trial.

"She violated and abused many people's trust in a most cynical and calculating way.

"Her defence was a ludicrous and malicious fantasy from start to finish. She has also, through the case and using personal documents she admitted in court stealing, dragged my name and that of many others through the mud.

"Rightly she has been found guilty. She will now be known as a liar and a thief."

A large part of the stolen money went on gifts for her immediate family.

De Laurey first plundered £1.1 million from a New York investment account belonging to Jennifer Moses and her husband Ron Beller, both managing directors at Goldman Sachs.

She went on to pocket more than three times that amount from their even wealthier successor Mr Mead.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court were told by Stuart Trimmer, prosecuting: "No matter how poor or rich you are you are entitled to trust those who work for you ... trust means that you don't check, trust means the absence of the need to check. You don't check where it is somebody close to you."

Jeremy Dein, defending, said it was "inconceivable" that De-Laurey's bosses were unaware she was withdrawing money.

He said they were "wealthy to the point that is the stuff of fairy tales" and the money she was given was, to them, "little more than pocket money".

De-Laurey had denied 20 counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

Her husband, who said he knew nothing about his wife's finances and thought she owed her sudden wealth to currency trading, denied associated money laundering charges.

De-Laurey's mother, Dr Devi Schahhou, 68, of Hampstead, denied similar allegations.