A woman named Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, a former vice-president of product development at Tiffany & Co., pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing more than $2.1 million worth of jewelry from her employers. WWD reports that she was arrested earlier this month at her home in Darien, Connecticut, after the company discovered she had “checked out” and then resold more than 165 pieces between January 2011 and February 2013, when she was fired.
Lederhaas-Okun initially tried to make excuses, saying she’d checked out the pieces for a nonexistent Powerpoint presentation, and then claimed all the pieces could be found in an envelope in the office. But when the authorities found multiple checks totaling $1.3 million made out to Ledehaas-Okun from a jewelry reseller, the jig was up. On Friday, she made a deal to forfeit $2.1 million and restore $2.2 million; she may go to prison. She also gave Manhattan prosecutor Preet Bharara the pleasure of delivering this line, which he’s probably been practicing in front of the mirror for weeks: “Diamonds are forever but stolen diamonds are not.”
