He paid her $93,000 a year — and, he claims, she still robbed him blind.
William Salomon, the 98-year-old scion of venerable Salomon Brothers trading house, told a federal judge this week he “implicitly” trusted former secretary Karen Febles, and had no idea she’d allegedly bilked him of more than $1.3 million.
“There’s no reason to have a personal secretary if you can’t trust her,” said the frail Salomon in Newark federal court in testimony against Febles, who is charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an alleged four-year scam to skim Salomon’s dough.
Salomon, whose father founded the former trading powerhouse, said Febles would have him sign checks for petty cash and other expenditures, only to deposit them in her bank account.
Febles, of Palisades Park, NJ, at one point allegedly had $400,000 in cash plus nearly $500,000 in checks from Salomon’s accounts in her own bank account.
She also used siphoned funds on luxuries that included a $53,000 Range Rover, a $34,650 Mercedes-Benz, $45,000 in vacation cruises, and more than $100,000 on real estate, prosecutors said.