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Buiter, Mees: Dangerous liaison |
New York, July 4: A 44-year-old academic has been charged with harassing one of the world’s most prominent economists and sending him more than a thousand e-mails, including explicit pictures of herself.
Heleen Mees, a Dutch economist and former lecturer at New York University, was charged yesterday (Wednesday) with harassing Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup.
She was held on $5,000 bail and ordered to avoid all contact with Buiter and his family.
Buiter, 63, is a former founding member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, which sets interest rates, and invented the term “Grexit” to refer to a Greek exit from the eurozone.
The distinguished economist spent five years at the London School of Economics before moving to Citigroup in 2010 and previously was chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.
According to the New York Post, Mees allegedly had an earlier intimate relationship with Buiter, who is married with two children.
Court documents state that Mees sent a barrage of e-mails to Buiter, including some which showed sexually explicit images of herself and other women. She is said to have asked Buiter questions such as “Shall we adopt a child?” and “What can I do to make it right? Shall I lick your b***s?”
Mees is also alleged to have sent e-mails to Buiter’s wife and children.
The court documents state that the e-mails became more threatening. She purportedly sent him a picture of dead birds and another that said: “Hope your plane falls out of the sky.”
The Daily News in New York quoted Mees’ lawyer, Van-eshka Hyacinthe, saying that her client “had a long-standing relationship” with Buiter and that “the e-mails go in both directions”.
Buiter declined to comment and Mees was unavailable for comment.
Buiter lives in a $4.5-million apartment overlooking the Hudson River in New York. He was born in the Netherlands but holds British and American citizenship.
At the court hearing, the judge was told that Mees began sending e-mails in July 2011 and that Buiter sent her a cease-and-desist letter on February 27.
Judge Robert Mandelbaum of the Manhattan Criminal Court told Mees: “Do not call them, do not go to their home, school, businesses, place of employment. No e-mails, no text messages, instant messages, no phone calls, letters, fax or voice messages.”
Mees was an assistant professor of economics at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and is believed to have moved to the US a few years ago.
The New York Post reported that she met Buiter while working on a thesis for her PhD.
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