Waters embezzlement trial: Boss’s mistress said Waters never gave her cash
By David Hanners, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
That man,
O'Gorman, called as a government witness in Waters' mail- and wire-fraud trial, watched a TV monitor as Assistant U.S. Attorney
O'Gorman told Otteson that wasn't her memory.
"I do not remember if
She said the cash usually amounted to
Cafesjian -- a renowned art collector -- also had her on retainer as an art consultant and paid her monthly. In that capacity, her salary was
Cafesjian, a former West Publishing Co. executive and shareholder who reaped millions when the company was sold in 1996, died in September at age 88. His wife of 65 years, Cleo Cafesjian, died in March at 87.
Waters, 57, of
An
Witnesses have said Cafesjian placed complete trust in Waters to run his business affairs. Cafesjian's daughter,
Otteson and colleague
Defense attorney
Waters worked for Cafesjian at West and then managed the millionaire's business and philanthropic interests when West was sold and Cafesjian retired in 1996. The government says Waters siphoned money from Cafesjian's accounts, then deposited it into accounts he controlled.
Among them was an account for Waters' then-mistress, a topless dancer-turned-real estate broker he later married. The government says he put up to
In a 2012 civil suit he filed against Cafesjian, Waters claimed the withdrawals were appropriate. He said they were mostly loans against deferred compensation that Cafesjian had promised him under a verbal modification to the employment agreement they had signed when he went to work for Cafesjian.
People who worked in Cafesjian's office, as well as an accountant and a lawyer who did estate planning for Cafesjian, have testified they never saw evidence of such an agreement -- nor was any deferred compensation reported on the foundation's tax forms as required by the
O'Gorman testified that she met Cafesjian in 1978, and said under cross-examination by Aligada that that was the year their romantic relationship began. He would've been 53 and she was 31; her online vitae said that from 1977-79, she was a teaching assistant at the
She has worked as a museum curator and exhibition coordinator, and she owns a company named Mixed Media Arts. Her vitae says that from 1983 to 1996, she was an "art consultant/graphic designer/media placement" at West.
Cafesjian had a keen interest in art and was quite the collector, and he brought her to West to head one of his pet projects, "Art and the Law," which featured traveling art exhibitions that always opened in
She said that when West was sold and the new owner discontinued the award-winning program, Cafesjian gave her a check for
After Cafesjian retired, she helped him buy art and worked for him as a consultant. She was put on retainer at one of his companies,
She also said that Cafesjian loaned her money to buy a condo in
Under cross-examination, she said that through the years, Cafesjian gave her art, jewelry and gems. Aligada asked her how many, and she replied that it would be hard to say.
"Why?" the defense attorney asked.
"There were many gifts," she said.
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