She-wolf of Wall St spills lurid tales

innovative and illegal ways to make money instead.

Keo and her sidekick, Samantha Barbash, played by Jennifer Lopez in the movie, would charm their victim and then spike his drink with a combination of ketamine and MDMA, enabling them to swipe his credit cards. They could net ‘‘anywhere from US$2000 to US$15,000’’ a night, she recalled.

‘‘To Samantha, everyone was just a target but to me, you should pick and choose your targets: there are so many fish in the sea,’’ said Keo. ‘‘I did have a heart sometimes.’’

The women knew that the men, who were often married, were unlikely to make any formal complaints. She claims not to remember how many she drugged during her crime spree, which she says lasted two years: ‘‘It just got out of hand.’’

She admitted: ‘‘When you get a little taste of that money, it’s hard to go back to your real job.’’

Fancy cars were a particular weakness: ‘‘I had an Escalade, an Audi A8, a Mercedes, Range Rovers – anything I wanted.’’

She describes herself as the ‘‘response to Jordan Belfort’’, the corrupt trader who inspired Martin Scorsese’s film The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Just as Belfort was exposed, Keo’s racket unravelled too. She maintains that she knew that police and Drug Enforcement Agency sting operations were under way: ‘‘I’m very street smart and I remember those nights feeling off.’’

After an eight-month investigation, Keo, Barbash and three others were arrested. ‘‘I realised my world was crumbling,’’ she recalled.

Keo was charged with assault, forgery, grand larceny and conspiracy but managed to avoid prison after accepting a plea deal. She got five years’ probation.

Today, Keo is a ‘‘very spiritual’’ yoga devotee and a stay-athome mother to her nine-year-old daughter: ‘‘I don’t chase the money any more. I don’t need Gucci and Chanel, I go to H&M.’’

Determined to build a personal brand, she posed on the red carpet last weekend at the premiere of the Hustlers movie in Toronto and has spent a ‘‘big chunk of money’’ to self-publish her autobiography, The Sophisticated Hustler: When The Alpha Female Takes On Wall Street.

Does she feel any guilt? ‘‘I’ve learnt to not look back. [Maybe] all of that happened for my story to change someone’s life for the better.’’ – Sunday Times