Mantra of the Day: I'm earning my jet set lifestyle the right way.
Within the past year, the news has been especially rife with stories about CEOs and politicians abusing their expense accounts, corporate budgets and taxpayer money to live a posh life. Remember the story about Merrill Lynch's CEO who used $1.2 million of company funds to redecorate his office? As if that wasn't enough, he paid his driver $230,000 for one year's work. (Wow, that must be some driver!)
In the UK, businessman Douglas Brown saw fit to plunder £2.5 million from his company so that he and his family could live the good life. For 12 years, good ole Doug wrote false checks and handed in phony invoices that allowed him to honeymoon in Italy, buy a villa in Florida, BMWs for himself and his wife, stay at five-star hotels, ride around in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, shop at the best stores, and dine at the swankiest restaurants. His annual salary was a meager £79,000. Did I mention that he recommended laying off ten people between 2001 and 2006? Thankfully, his greed landed him a seven-year jail sentence.
A few other Brits also joined the jet-set-gone-wrong club, including soon-to-be former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin and Conservative Member of Parliament Douglas Hogg. Martin resigned after reports arose that he had expensed a massage chair, pornographic movies, a moat cleaning, a plasma TV, horse manure for gardens, and tennis court repairs. Hogg claimed several questionable expenses such as a full-time housekeeper, work done to his stables, piano tuning, and more than $3,000 for the cleaning of the moat around his 13th century country home. (Seems like no one wants to pay for their own moat cleaning.)
My conscience just wouldn't allow me to support my lifestyle this way. What would you be willing to do to live the jet set life?
[IMAGE: Courtesy of Getty Images]
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