The trial at the federal courthouse on Foley Square in New York was “about the public interest,” attorney Daniel Kornstein assured the jury. One of the world’s richest men was accusing Sotheby’s auctioneers of helping to bilk him out of $380 million. But, really, “anyone could be a victim,” insisted Kornstein.
It was a spin on a line from Fitzgerald: the very rich aren’t so very different from you and me. But could the regular folks on the jury feel empathy for Kornstein’s client Dmitry Rybolovlev—a billionaire many times over? Rybolovlev was suing Sotheby’s, but in a sense, he was on trial, too, for being supernaturally rich.
