Anna Delvey lived the secret and exciting life of a millionaire, mixing within the New York socialite scene. A potential heiress, it was never clear where Anna Delvey was from, but one thing did remain: she suspiciously paid for everything in cash.
She would hang out among New York socialites, including many celebrities. When asked about her background, Anna rarely gave the same answer twice. Despite the inconsistency, Anna knew exactly how to act like she came from money, avoiding suspicion for years.
Like many heiresses, Anna circulated around the city from hotel to hotel with no permanent residence. Occasionally, she would have to leave the country to renew her tourist visa.
Anna eventually checked into the boutique Soho hotel on 11 Howard Street in early February 2017, where she planned to stay for a while. Anna knew just the right people and earned herself a reputation. Thus, the hotel managers didn’t even ask her for a credit card at the time, something they would later regret. Anna was not shy of flaunting her money. She would wear Gucci sandals, Celine sunglasses, and other high-end designer clothing like it was nothing.
After a month at the hotel, Anna approached Nefertari Davis, the 25-year-old concierge at 11 Howard who goes by the name Neff. She would ask Neff for advice, for example, the best food in Soho, and each time Anna would slip her a $100 bill for her service. Neff found this unusual from a girl who seemed to be the same age as her.
When Neff asked the pale young girl with reddish hair for her name, she checked the system and noticed that Delvey was booked into a Howard Deluxe, one of the hotel’s mid-range rooms at about $400 a night. Over the next few weeks, Delvey often asked for Neff’s advice, slipping her bills each time.
But Neff eventually realized that Delvey already knew all the places to go. It soon dawned on Neff why Anna was asking for advice. “This is not a guest that needs my help,” she later said. “This is a guest that wants my time.” To Neff, this was not unordinary, as she often acted as a therapist to many of the guests.
Being an aspiring cinematographer, Neff figured it was a good idea to befriend the guest, as Anna’s connections could come in handy for her career. It wasn’t long before Anna and Neff would hang out together around Soho. Despite many of the other hotel employees taking a disliking to the rich girl and finding her frequent visits to the concierge desk annoying, they soon began to fight to take packages to her room, noting her generous reputation. Staff members began to fight as they knew they would receive a $100 bill in return. Anna soon walked around the hotel as if she ran the place.
She would pay for everything in cash, and usually $100 bills. No one questioned any of this. “She gave to everyone,” said Neff. “Uber drivers, $100 cash. Meals, listen, you know how you reach for your credit card?
She wouldn’t let me.” Anna spent money like it was water. Her room would overflow with shopping bags from Acne and Supreme, and she would often treat herself to all kinds of beauty treatments. She even invested in a personal trainer for a crazy $4,500. Others around her made assumptions that she was wealthy, most likely an heiress to a rich family, especially given her European accent.
Neff noticed her new friend knew everyone. She would host and organize large dinners at La Cacao, an expensive restaurant attended by CEOs, artists, athletes, and even celebrities. Of course, Neff was invited to these high-profile dinners and one night found herself sitting next to childhood idol Macaulay Culkin. Neff described the experience as awkward. “I had so many questions, and he was right there, but they were talking about, like, friend stuff, so I never got the chance to be like, ‘So you’re the godfather to Michael Jackson’s kids?
“She was at all the best parties,” said marketing director Tommy Sala, who met her in Paris during fashion week. Anna was an intern at European magazine Purple and appeared to be close with the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Olivier Zom, and Andre Cereva, the owner of LeBaron. “She introduced herself, and she was a sweet girl, very polite,” said Sala. “Then we’re just hanging with my friends, all of a sudden.” She was most certainly a people person and knew how to mingle her way into crowds.
One friend said she managed to be in all the sort of right places. She would turn up to parties on private jets and dressed in fancy designer clothes. Those who knew Anna were still unsure where she came from. She told people Cologne, but her German was not very good. Unclear to many where her money came from, people did not find it unusual.
There are so many trust fund kids running around,” said Sala. “Everyone is your best friend, and you don’t know a thing about anyone.” Anna was introduced to Michael Jhufu Huang, the extremely young and successful collector and founder of Beijing’s M Woods Museum. The two immediately clicked, and Anna suggested that they take a trip together to Italy to go to the Venice Biennale. Huang found it a little weird when Anna asked him to book the plane tickets and hotel on his credit card, although to him, it was not a lot of money, only around $3,000, and a promise to pay him back.
While on their trip, Michael found it strange that Anna paid for everything in cash. Despite this, it was not enough for Michael to spot the warning signs. Once they returned from Venice, Anna seemed to have forgotten her promise to pay Huang back. After some time, he forgot about it too. However, in Anna’s defense, being super-rich can make you forgetful and make you do other strange things, like call a friend, have her put a taxi from the airport on her credit card, doesn’t it?
Anna decided to hire a PR firm, as most would, to organize her birthday party in January. The party took place at Sadelle’s in Soho, one of her favorite restaurants. Michael attended, along with many other very cool, very successful Her family moved to Germany in 2007. She was, in fact, not an heiress but came from a working-class family with no trust fund. Anna is still trying to talk her way out of paying for her crimes.
She offered the judge a plea deal of one to three years imprisonment, but this was unsurprisingly rejected. In return, the judge offered three to nine years imprisonment, but Anna turned this down, electing to go to trial. According to the judge, Anna has shown no remorse for her actions. While Anna awaits trial, there is going to be a Netflix series based on her life. A judge has said that Anna is more concerned with who will be playing her in the series than her crimes.
According to Anna’s lawyers, she’s not suffering in jail. In fact, she seems to be doing very well. She’s described the experience as a sociological experiment. It’s believed that Anna Sorokin allegedly scammed people and numerous banks and hotels for around $275,000. Experts think she used falsified documents to acquire loans from banks, showing that she had millions of dollars in banks in Europe.
She also floated bad checks between banks and took out credit that she was unable to pay back. Perhaps her plan was to pay it all back after her adf business took off the ground, but I don’t think anyone would have held their breath to see that happen.
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