City lawyer conned millions from bank

London's Southwark Crown Court heard the massive transfers ended up in the coffers of struggling Indonesian carrier Air Efata which boasted just three planes.

In return she received pay-offs totalling £1.95m (€2.14m), more than £1.1m (€1.2m) of which was promptly used to clear the mortgage on her luxury town house.

She also splashed out £40,000 (€44,027) of her "ill-gotten gains" on a pair of earrings to go with the £35,000 (€38,524) ring grateful airline chief Frank Taira-Supit had bought her.

Investigators went on to find she had received another £1.05m (€1.15m) from him before the scam. She claimed it was for legal advice. In any event it apparently helped provide her with a lifestyle of shopping trips, personal grooming and breast surgery.

Unfortunately her massive betrayal of trust failed to rescue the Harvard law graduate's airline and it was grounded.

The devastated 58-year-old former lawyer later hanged himself.

For her part, married Johns, of Gloucester Avenue, Camden Town, north London, claimed that far from being a criminal she had simply been doing the bidding of one of her bosses to protect the bank's interests.

The jury, however, took less than three hours to unanimously decide she was lying and convict her of 12 offences committed between May 11 and October 25, 2006.

Five offences concerned using letters of credit to obtain money transfers by deception totalling $10.9m (€11m) by deception, while the remainder involved the acquisition of £588,373 (€647,647) criminal property.

Adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report, Judge John Price told Johns she could remain on bail until she was dealt with on December 4.

The court heard the £150,000 (€165,111)-a-year lawyer, regarded by colleagues as "well-respected, hard-working, and ambitious", joined the banking giant's London office 11 years ago.

She told jurors she felt it offered her the "challenges and tough environment" she craved.

However, three years ago she effectively sacrificed her increasingly lucrative career for a criminal one that offered multi-millionaire status.

Triggered by what police believe was a perfectly innocent request from Mr Taira-Supit for help in financing his fledgling airline, she set about conning colleagues into helping by sanctioning letters of credit with their "chops" or stamps.

Elizabeth Marsh QC, prosecuting, said: "The bank has more assets than any bank in the world because it is careful who it lends to, but no checks at all were in place when the letters of credit were sent out."

The barrister said while many of her co-workers felt uneasy about breaching procedures, the history and law graduate claimed she was merely doing a "special job" for Yoshinobu Onishi, chief executive of the bank's European division.

One junior employee later told investigators that although "reluctant" he was "pressurised into doing it".

But another admitted: "I fully trusted her."

The barrister said as a result of the first three "fraudulent" letters of credit Mr Supit received $900,000 (€602,346).

She explained that was paid to GE Commercial Aviation Services, a leading player in commercial aircraft leasing and financing, to redeem a similar-sized deposit Mr Taira-Supit had paid for his aircraft.

However, the move "kept his airline afloat only for two weeks as Air Efata was on its uppers".

So Johns, whose husband Charles used to work for financial services giant JPMorgan Chase, decided to aim for higher stakes.

In the weeks that followed she drew up two further letters of credit - each for $5m (€3.34m).

The first was processed relatively painlessly, as colleagues accepted her assurances she was carrying out a "confidential and emergency" request for Mr Onishi.

Johns also promised the necessary paperwork would follow later.

When the second met more resistance she used a "note of exceptional treatment" to push it through.

Ms Marsh said by this time Air Efata had been fed a total of $10.9m (€7.2m). However, it was not enough and the airline folded.

But by then Johns had received a near 50% share in various bank accounts in her maiden name of Gibb.

She was finally arrested in January last year.

In evidence, Johns insisted she would never have betrayed the bank she joined because of the "challenges and tough environment" she craved.

"I agree that to a limited extent I was breaking bank protocol but I was acting in good faith, I was acting honestly. I believed I had the authority."

She maintained that having told him the Seychellois government was about to swap its allegiance from Tokyo Mitsubishi to Standard Chartered he told her to do "whatever you can to keep the business.

"He just told me to get on with it."

The defendant said that gave her the idea to back her friend's airline, which would somehow boost Indonesian tourism to the Seychelles and make the resident bank there happy.

"It helped Tokyo Mitsubishi prop up an important relationship with the Bank of Seychelles. I thought I had permission to sign the letters of credit. Nobody said I couldn't. I believe I was authorised to do what I did," she added.

But Mr Onishi told jurors: "I never discussed Air Efata or any other Indonesian airline with her.

"I never gave her authority on this issue because a chief executive is not involved in setting up individual transactions. I never gave her the authority to sign letters of credit.

"I was not in a position to approve or disapprove letters of credit, others dealt with such things."

He added: "The bank was not involved in aviation start-ups. She was not in a position to lend money."