Part 1 of Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast about socialite turned scammer, Anna Delvey. Listen to the series here.
Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, arrived to her first court appearance on March 27, 2019 with her slightly frizzy, mousy brown hair parted down the middle, her eyes framed in overwhelmingly large black glasses from the designer Celine. The glasses matched the black choker around her neck and her black Miu Miu dress. The only out-of-place accessory was the set of silver, metal handcuffs shackling the 28-year-old’s wrists.
When her lawyer, Todd Spodek, began his opening statement, he invoked the old adage about New York City that was made famous by none other than Frank Sinatra: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin sits smiling next to her attorney Todd Spodek during her sentencing at Manhattan Supreme Court May 9, 2019 following her conviction last month on multiple counts of grand larceny and theft of services. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Spodek spoke of his client, who created the fictitious persona Anna Delvey, as possessing “moxie.” Spodek explained how she “created the life that she wanted for herself. Anna was not content with being a spectator, but wanted to be a participant. Anna didn’t wait for opportunities, Anna created opportunities. Now we can all relate to that,” the lawyer said. “There’s a little bit of Anna in all of us. Everyone lies a little.”
How did this young woman, with an affinity for designer clothes and an appetite for success end up on the wrong side of the law? And what was it like to know her before she was arrested?
We spoke with one of those friends to find out.
‘Can we just use your card for now?’
The Russian-born aspiring socialite came to the U.S. with a big dream and few plans. Full of ambition and confidence, Anna embarked on a mission to create a life and a lifestyle that would attract the envy of her peers, the attention of the people she aspired to be like, and, eventually, the authorities.
The German suspected impostor Anna Sorokin sits next to her defender Todd Spodek (l) in the courtroom before the start of her trial. (Photo: Johannes Schmitt-Tegge/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Anna took up residence at 11 Howard in early 2017, a boutique hotel in Soho, one of New York’s trendiest and priciest neighborhoods. She had come to New York with the goal of launching The Anna Delvey Foundation, which would be not only her entry into philanthropy and entrepreneurship, in addition to serving as a means to elevate her personal brand.
As Delvey attempted to build the foundation’s image, she planned a trip to Morocco with some friends and acquaintances, including Rachel DeLoache Williams, who had been a photo editor at Vanity Fair at the time, and Neffatari (Neff) Davis, a concierge at 11 Howard whom Anna had befriended.
Anna had planned the trip to fit the timeline during which she needed to leave the U.S. to reset her ESTA visa. It fit into Rachel’s schedule as well, since she had planned to take some time to travel around a work trip to Paris. What Rachel didn’t know was that she just signed up for the most expensive trip she would ever take.
“The men turned to me and said, ‘Do you have a card? And she'll have to settle the final bill before she checks out,’ Rachel DeLoache Williams told Illegal Tender. “Anna's like, ‘Can we just use your card for now?’”
“I made myself think it was going to be okay,” Williams added, “because I didn't know what else to do.”
Transcript of our interview with Rachel DeLoache William below:
Katie Krzaczek: A 28-year-old woman enters a federal courtroom in New York city. Her mousy brown hair is slightly frizzy, parted down the middle, and her eyes are framed in overwhelmingly large black glasses from the designer Celine. They match perfectly the black choker around her neck and her black Miu Miu dress. The only out-of-place accessory is a set of silver metal handcuffs, shackling the woman's wrists.
Katie Krzaczek: She takes her place at the defendant's table, ready to face down a slate of charges, four counts of theft of services, four counts of grand larceny, and two counts of attempted grand larceny. When her lawyer, Todd Spodak begins his opening statement, he invokes an old adage about New York City, made famous by none other than Frank Sinatra, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere." Spodak speaks of his client, Anna Delvey as possessing moxie. He explains how she, "created the life that she wanted for herself. Anna was not content with being a spectator, but she wanted to be a participant. Anna didn't wait for opportunities, Anna created opportunities. Now we can all relate to that." The lawyer says. "There's a little bit of Anna and all of us." Everyone lies a little.
Katie Krzaczek: This is Illegal Tender season two. I'm Katie Krzaczek.
Katie Krzaczek: How did this young woman with an affinity for designer clothes, and an appetite for success end up on the wrong side of the law? You could trace it back to Anna's time at 11 Howard, a boutique hotel in Soho, one of new York's trendiest and priciest neighborhoods. Anna took up residence here starting in early 2017. If you knew Anna during this time, you likely spent a lot of time within the walls of 11 Howard, becoming familiar, not only with the hotel staff, but also with Anna's hotel room.
Rachel Williams: It was small, it was not a suite, there was space for a bed, a very small table, she had a rolling rack and then she filled it with stuff. There was just black clothing everywhere, boxes and a lot of Net-A-Porter beauty supplies, like powders and weird tonics and elixirs, and some workout equipment. I mean this girl obviously had impulse issues and a spending problem. I think she constantly was online shopping. I don't know how, I don't know where that money came from, but it was very cluttered. It was just full of stuff. But then again, I'd never really been in a hotel room where somebody was living longterm, so it kind of made sense to me. It's not how I would have chosen to live, but it was just part of her lifestyle.
Author Rachel DeLoache Williams visits the SiriusXM Studios on August 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
Katie Krzaczek: That's Rachel DeLoache Williams. She was a photo editor at Vanity Fair when she and Anna originally met in February, 2016.
Rachel Williams: I first met Anna out one night, middle of the week, February, 2016 kind of that part of the year when you're coming out of your winter cocoon and you're in the mood to go out and maybe see some people. I was out with some girls I knew, who mostly worked in the fashion industry, and Anna already knew the girls in that group that I knew, but I hadn't met her before. She arrived kind of late in the night. We were downstairs sitting in a lounge, just having some drinks, and I remember her being slightly hard to place. She had an accent that I didn't know where she came from. I remember her being sort of slow to warm up at first and then kind of chatty.
Katie Krzaczek: Anna's untraceable accent was the product of her jet setting lifestyle, which also produced a taste for luxury, as evidenced by her choice of clothing, hotels and restaurants. She also became very well connected, which bode well for a project she was hoping to launch. She came to the States with a big plan and few dreams. Sidled with ambition and confidence, Anna embarked on a mission to create a life and a lifestyle. It would attract the envy of her peers, the attention of the people she aspired to be like, and eventually the watchful gaze of the authorities.
Rachel Williams: I heard from her and then also from other people that she had a trust fund, and the reason she was in New York is because she was working hard to create something called the Anna Delvey foundation, which was her idea for this arts space that was going to have restaurants, and bars, and a members only club.
Katie Krzaczek: Rachel could see firsthand the work that Anna was putting in to create this club. Many have likened in the foundation's exclusivity to that of Soho House, a hotel and members only club that began in London's Soho neighborhood in the early nineties. It trades in exclusivity, with an annual membership price tag around $2,000. the brochure for the Anna Delvey Foundation boasts a dynamic visual arts center dedicated to contemporary art. It would be housed in a 45,000 square foot building located on Park Avenue.
Rachel Williams: People come here and they want to do things, and some are more successful than others. I admired that someone with the kind of wealth she pretended to have was so motivated, because I think sometimes with second generation, third generation, whatever wealth, there's a tendency maybe to be a little lazy. It just depends on how you're raised, but I admired that someone with her privilege or whatever you want to call it, was working hard.
Katie Krzaczek: You'll notice Rachel speaks wearily about Anna's wealth and privilege. By all accounts, Anna Delvey was the heiress to her family's fortune, which her father had built as an oil baron, or was it a solar panel empire? Maybe he was a diplomat? Exactly how he got that money was still a question.
Rachel Williams: She was very vague. She said something about a grandfather who, maybe that's where the wealth came from, but he had died when her mom was young. The way she talked about her family, it was so different from the way that I am with my family. I couldn't tell if it was sensitive, because it wasn't happy. It was like she wasn't close to her parents. They had more of a business relationship, and then I heard that her dad was a Russian billionaire who brought oil from Russia to Germany-
Katie Krzaczek: Just a bunch of different stories that never-
Rachel Williams: No the same story.
Katie Krzaczek: Oh okay. Just over and over again.
Rachel Williams: She was so consistent in her storytelling, I think that's how the con worked to the degree it did until she got caught.
Anna Sorokin, who a New York jury convicted last month of swindling more than $200,000 from banks and people, is handcuffed during her sentencing at Manhattan State Supreme Court New York, U.S., May 9, 2019. Steven Hirsch/Pool via REUTERS
Katie Krzaczek: But this is New York City. It's not unheard of for someone to use their family's wealth to fund a long shot passion project. It's arguably just as common to hide inherited affluence from your friends, acquaintances, or potential business partners. Anna created the perfect cocktail for success. She stood out not because of her wealth, privilege or passion, but because she had the unique combination of all three, alongside some unchecked confidence. It was this combination that landed Delvey in rooms with investment bankers and celebrities, real estate developers and socialites alike. She allegedly rubbed elbows with Macaulay Culkin and Martin Shkreli among other notables. But while some reports make Anna's social life out to seem larger than life, those who knew her say she spent most of her time planning and networking, not partying and boozing.
Rachel Williams: She was really good at working those sort of networking connections. But that doesn't mean any of them went very deep.
Katie Krzaczek: From the outside, it might seem like a foregone conclusion that Anna Delvey was not all that she made herself out to be. Rachel said that she bought into the lies Anna peddled, mostly because she wanted to help her.
Rachel Williams: It felt safe. I didn't think she was asking anything of me, but my time. I enjoyed her company. There were enough positives that I made a decision to stick it out and try and help her through what seemed like a hard time in her life. At points she actually did seem fairly depressed. I'm sure it wasn't an easy secret to be carrying around, especially when you're damaging the only positive relationships you have in your life. I don't think she relished in that.
Katie Krzaczek: Who was Anna Delvey really? To understand how this young, ambitious woman found herself in Federal Court on grand larceny charges, let me first tell you where she came from. Anna Delvey was born Anna Sorokin on January 23rd, 1991 in Soviet Russia in a suburb of Moscow. The town where she was born was established around 1900, a settlement next to a nearby train station. The area today is a manufacturing hub of sorts with warehouses and materials production plants. It presents much more grit and grind than glitz and glamor.
Katie Krzaczek: The Sorokins moved to Germany in 2007. The family's patriarch, Vadim was a truck driver, and the family's relocation was reportedly due to his job. As she matriculated, Anna was accepted into Central Saint Martins College in London. The prestigious art school boasts a long list of notable alumni, including a slate of fashion designers, John Galliano, Zac Posen, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen. Anna turned down her acceptance, and decided instead to jumpstart a career in fashion herself.
Katie Krzaczek: She left behind her family name adopting the surname Delvey, and she moved to Paris establishing herself with a French art and culture magazine Purple. As an intern she reportedly became close with the publication’s editor-in-chief, Oliver Zahm, and soon she became a fixture among the see-and-be-seen crowd among the fashion and art community.
Katie Krzaczek: By the mid 2010s, Anna had finally made her way to the U.S, to New York of course. It wasn't until around 2016 that Anna began to lay the groundwork for what she hoped would become a seminal fixture in the New York art scene. The Anna Delvey Foundation would not only be her entry into philanthropy and entrepreneurship, but it would also serve as a means to elevate her personal brand.
Katie Krzaczek: According to New York Magazine's The Cut, Delvey followed the advice of a friend and reached out to Joel Cohen, a partner at Gibson Dunn to help solicit financial firms for backing. He ended up referring her to a colleague, Andy Lance, who worked to get in touch with City National Bank and Fortress Investment Group on behalf of Anna. She would need upwards of $20 million for the project. CNB denied her loan request, but Fortress was willing to work with the young woman. Fortress asked Delvey for $100,000 as a due diligence check. Somehow she was able to secure it through a second smaller loan requests to CNB. She withdrew the hundred grand extended and turned it over to Fortress as a liquid liability. The firm reportedly sent reps to Switzerland to confirm Anna's assets, AKA does this woman actually have the money she claims to have?
Katie Krzaczek: With her finances under the microscope. Anna withdrew her loan application. At that point she had also deposited $55,000 to a Citibank account that was used for personal expenses. According to The Cut, in April of 2017, "She deposited $160,000 worth of bad checks into that same account, managing to withdraw $70,000 before they were returned." That's how she paid off her hotel room bills at 11 Howard. Anna had been staying at the hotel for months at this point, but never put a credit card on file. Her bill was more than $30,000 before hotel management had asked one of its employees, who'd become friendly with Anna, to get her to pay off the debt.
Katie Krzaczek: Neffatari Davis, she goes by Neff, was one of Anna's closest confidants at this time, other than Rachel. A concierge at 11 Howard, Neff noticed Anna's comings and goings as she was one of the hotels few longterm residents. The pair became fast friends around February of 2017. Their friendship was central to The Cut’s story that detailed Anna's grifting.
Katie Krzaczek: I slid into Neff’s DMs on Instagram hoping to gain some insight on her friendship with Anna. She had to decline due to a contractual obligation with Netflix. You see, much like Billy McFarland and the Fyre Fest, Anna's story had captured the attention of Hollywood. Shonda Rhimes is producing the series for Netflix, and Lena Dunham reportedly has something in the works at HBO, so Neff couldn't talk. Neither could most of the other people who knew Anna during this time, I would continue to find this out through emails, turning down interview requests. What Neff did tell me though, or at least she hinted at it with some pointed language and her wry use of emoji and GIFs, was that she is not fond of Rachel, arguably the only other person who was welcomed to share in Anna's mysterious life.
Katie Krzaczek: Neff wrote to me ‘you can always ask Rachel LOL. I'm sure she'll eat it up.’ She followed up to say, "No one really spoke to Anna except me LOL. She was very private. That's probably why only Rachel is speaking. She's the only one that needs the media attention." Rachel didn't offer up much when asked about Neff.
Anna Sorokin better known as Anna Delvey, the 28-year-old German national, whose family moved there in 2007 from Russia, is seen in the courtroom during her trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York on April 11, 2019. (Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Rachel Williams: I thought Neff was really social, charming, smiley. She seemed like a kind of a go-getter, she worked hard. Yeah, I liked everybody that worked in the hotel. I definitely don't want to speak to anyone else's intentions. I wish Neff well, I think this is a really weird experience for anyone to have gone through, and everybody comes out of it with different reflections, different takeaways, different ways to react. I would caution anybody who is close to Anna, she is a sociopath. I don't think she is capable of profoundly connecting to other people in her life or caring about them. But that's other people's decision. I really don't feel competitive about this space. I did my best, I wrote the book, I've said my piece. I've tried and tried to explore it as unflinchingly, and honestly, and fully as I can, and I will continue to learn from that. But I also look forward to moving on from here. Anyone else who wants to do their own different paths I wish them well. Yeah.
Katie Krzaczek: In her book, My Friend Anna, Rachel does shed some light on how Anna spoke about Neff, particularly in the lead up to a trip to Marrakesh that Anna had planned. Anna wanted to film a documentary on the trip, and would employ her friends help in producing it. Neff would direct the doc. She'd only been working at the hotel as a means to gain financial security while pursuing a career in the film industry. She had tweeted her excitement to be working on the project saying, "I'm going to Morocco in a few weeks to direct a film. Two years ago I was a manager at Starbucks. You can't tell me God isn't real." Anna didn't like that. She texted Rachel to say, "She seems like she works hard, but this psychotic desire to show off is such a turn off for me."
Katie Krzaczek: Neff wrote to me directly on Instagram. She said, “the things said about me in Rachel's book aren't true, and it sucks that I can't go any further, but I will be able to speak on that and other things soon. Thanks for contacting me."
Katie Krzaczek: As the trip grew nearer, it was now late spring 2017, Neff had to back out since she wouldn't be able to stay for the entire week. The final roll call ended up being only Anna, Rachel, Kacy Duke who was a celebrity fitness instructor Anna had been taking classes with, and Rachel's friend, a videographer named Jesse Hawk.
Katie Krzaczek: Anna had planned the trip to fit the timeline during which she needed to leave the U.S to reset her ESTA visa. It fit into Rachel's schedule as well, since she had planned to take some time to travel around a work trip to Paris. What Rachel didn't know was that she had just signed up for the most expensive trip she would ever take.
Rachel Williams: It set off alarm bells, because I think the hotel thought we were fleeing and the credit card Anna had given them before we arrived didn't work. I go to my bedroom thinking, Anna's out there dealing with the managers, it's going to be fine. Her bank should be open, this can be resolved. She just needs to focus on this being a serious problem. I come out from the room and Anna's just sitting there, and the two men are just standing there, and Anna's phone is on the table. She's not doing anything, she's not using it. The men turned to me and said, “Do you have a card? And she'll have to settle the final bill before she checks out.” Anna's like, “Can we just use your card for now? I made myself think it was going to be okay, because I didn't know what else to do.”
