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Goldman Sachs banker 'offers wife £500k to leave husband'
Ross Lydall7 Sep 2009
A Goldman Sachs banker offered a woman £500,000 to leave her pensioner husband, a court was told.
Yann Samuelides, a managing director of the investment bank, allegedly promised the cash to Alzbeta Holmokova, 28, if she left 67-year-old Denis Morley.
Mr Morley told a divorce court that Mr Samuelides, 35, showered his Slovakian wife with gifts and threatened to kill himself if she stopped seeing him.
The retired businessman is contesting Ms Holmokova's petition for divorce at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch county court.
He claims that Mr Samuelides, from France, who became a Goldman Sachs managing director two years ago, rented a flat for his wife.
Mr Morley admits having once threatened to kill Mr Samuelides. His wife filed for divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.
"He bribed her to leave me," Mr Morley, from Coventry, said.
"My wife had told him she loved and respected her husband. She said she was happy and had to refuse him.
"He threatened to commit suicide if she stopped seeing him. So I said: 'You'd better keep seeing him.'
"His response was: 'Here's a £5,000 diamond ring, here's a £1,500 handbag and £3,500 cash.' Eventually he said: 'Leave your husband and come and live with me and I'll give you £500,000.' She has told me that she's with him for the money. She's not going to get the £500,000 unless she marries him."
Neither Mr Samuelides nor Ms Holmokova commented as they arrived together at court. The case was adjourned until 13 October.
Meanwhile, the extravagant lifestyle of a businessman at the centre of a £400 million divorce battle was revealed today.
Scot Young, 48, who claims he is now penniless, faces jail if he cannot account for his missing fortune at a High Court hearing today.
Speaking before the case, his estranged wife Michelle told how the property tycoon owned a yacht in Monaco and bought a new car every six weeks.
Mr Young told an earlier court hearing he has lost all his former wealth and was given until today to produce documents.
But Mrs Young, 45, has hired a team of experts to gather evidence to prove he is hiding some of his fortune.
