She-wolf of Wall St spills lurid tales
Roselyn Keo always had a good eye for nice things – designer watches, smart shoes – and she knew what she was looking for in a man.
On ‘‘fishing’’ trips to Manhattan’s bars, restaurants and cigar lounges, Keo and her gang of strippers-turned-scammers sought out unsuspecting men with black American Express cards. If they also left generous tips, the women would drug them and drag them to a strip club to rack up exorbitant bills.
Knowing who to hook is ‘‘a gift you either have or you don’t. I can’t teach you my secrets,’’ said Keo, 35, last week, drumming her fake nails on a juice bar counter in a New Jersey open-air shopping mall.
Keo’s secrets, however, are spilt in a new film, Hustlers .It tells the story of how Keo, played by the Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu, and her accomplices started conning ‘‘Wall Street types’’ in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.
With the suits spending less in strip clubs, the women found 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,’’ recalled Keo.She was charged with assault, forgery, grand larceny and conspiracy but managed to avoid prison after accepting a plea deal. She was given 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 Hustlers 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