31. The Socialite (Anna Delvey)
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This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

Hi, this is Kari Farrell and I am here with DJ Manet's hands and we are kicking off New York art fair season. Now, is there any way that I could, you know, maybe possibly get your social security number? 22 year old Kari Farrell was hip. She had a cool haircut. She listened to cool music. Her MySpace profile was artistically crafted. She had multiple tattoos and she spent most of her time hanging out with guys and bands that grew ironic facial hair.

In fact, one of Carrie's tattoos on the back of her hip read, "I heart beards." It was perfect, because Carrie Farrow had just moved to a place where nose rings and beards were considered acceptable replacements for personality. Early 2000s, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Carrie made friends in Brooklyn quickly and easily. By now, meeting people had become effortless. Carrie wasn't afraid to start a conversation with anybody. She had spent her entire life trying to fit in, and it hadn't always been so easy.

especially as an adopted child from Korea growing up in a Mormon family in suburban Utah. Brooklyn, on the other hand, fit Carrie Farrell like a glove, and not just because she was living in a room the size of a broom closet. These were her peers, the young creative types that wore suspenders for some reason, the artists with trust funds, the musicians with brand new gear, the rebels with MacBooks,

rebelling against their sterile suburban upbringings and idolizing the grittiness of city life while sanding down the rough edges of everything they gentrify and calling it artisanal. It was the dawn of modern-day hipsterdom in America, and Carrie Farrell was there for it. She even got a job working for Vice magazine many years before the HBO series and the TV networks and the Rupert Murdoch investments. In true hipster fashion, Carrie Farrell had worked at Vice before it was cool, but she didn't work there for long.

One week into the job, Carrie's new boss, publisher Eric Lavoie, decided to search the intranet for Carrie's name after she had made sexual advances towards him on company time. Eric was shocked to discover that his cute and funny administrative assistant was wanted in Utah on outstanding warrants for over $60,000 worth of forgery, bad checks, and retail theft. On April 2, 2009, Vice publicized their mistake by posting an article titled, Department of Oopsies, We Hired a Grifter.

which contains some sage advice for hiring managers that read quote: "When the time comes for you to take on a new administrative assistant, try plugging your prospective employee's name into the new internet dealie called Google to make sure she doesn't have any less than desirable traits, like, say, five outstanding warrants for fraud in Utah, where she also faked numerous abortions and was run out of town after earning a colorful nickname such as 'The Filth.' It was true, Carrie "The Filth" Farrell had made some mistakes in Utah,

She had stolen petty amounts from boyfriends and friends and had taken advantage of her parents' generosity. But she had tried to make things right. Kind of. In June 2008, Carrie sent an official looking letter from Western Union to her mother and stepfather, letting them know to expect a money order for $8,300. Of course, that money order never arrived and a fraud investigator informed her parents that the letter was fake.

Carrie was just trying to buy herself more time, but ultimately she ended up with the kind of time that nobody wants: time in jail. Carrie Farrell was bailed out by a friend after a brief stay and she immediately fled to New York, skipping out on her $60,000 bail, which is how she found herself on the list of Salt Lake City's most wanted, the list that her new employer found with a simple Google search. Carrie's past had followed her to Brooklyn, but it's not like she had left her dishonesty behind in Utah.

The only reason she was hired at Vice in the first place was because she claimed to have experience working for Golden Voice, the promotion company behind the Coachella Music Festival. As it turns out, Golden Voice, at least at the time, did not even have an office in New York. None of this came as a surprise to people that knew Carrie.

Brady Burroughs, who had known her for years, told ABC News, She's good at being a friend. She puts herself out as fairly vulnerable in a lot of ways, but if you're around her long enough, you start to realize that there are way too dramatic things going on in her life to be realistic by any means. Unfortunately for Brady, he found that out the hard way. Carrie had scammed him out of more than $1,300 when she told him that she was locked out of her bank account and asked if he could cash checks on her behalf using his account. Carrie offered Brady $50 for his help.

Brady agreed and did what Carrie wanted. And days later, every one of those checks had bounced. Brady had to repay the bank out of his own pocket. As for the origin of Carrie Farrell's Utah nickname, The Filth, Brady told ABC, quote, She is very aggressive sexually. And judging by the stories that came pouring in after her identity was revealed in the Vice article, it sounded like Carrie had spent the majority of her year in New York trying to charm the skinny jeans off of every man in Brooklyn.

One of those men, a man named Troy, was sitting at a bar in Williamsburg when the bartender passed him a note. It read, "I want to give you a handjob with my mouth." And it was signed by Korean Abdul Jabbar. Troy looked up from the note to see Carrie smiling back at him. Another man at a cafe had been lucky or cursed enough to receive a similar note from Carrie, although his was a bit more euphemistic. It read, "I want you to throw a hot dog down my hallway."

The gossip website Gawker also dug up a response from Carrie to a Craigslist Personals ad from 2009 that was posted by a man looking for a good time with a tall red-headed woman. In her emailed response to the man, Carrie admitted that she was neither tall nor red-headed, but included a numbered list of reasons why those facts should be overlooked. The beginning of the list where Carrie describes her hobbies reads like it was written by that quirky girl on campus who walks too fast and doesn't bend her arms.

But on reason number five, Carrie gets straight to the point. She typed, quote, And if that was too subtle, the seventh and final bullet point on Carrie's list to her potential suitor simply read, quote,

It's unconfirmed if any of those men accepted Carrie's generous offers, but it is obvious that she gets a kick out of being sexually provocative. Carrie was more self-aware than the slut-shaming media was willing to give her credit for. The innuendo, the aggressiveness, the outlandishness, that's just part of her personality. The truth is that Carrie Farrell is charming and funny, as well as pretty intelligent and very well-spoken.

As you can tell from her interview with ABC News, in which she states, quote, I am charming and funny. I am pretty intelligent and very well spoken. But for someone so intelligent, Carrie could not come up with an excuse for the fraudulent things she had done in her past. She claims to have known that her actions were stupid, even at the time she was doing them. She didn't even really need the money. Carrie had a job in Utah, where she was paid more than most people her age. She grew up as a straight-A student and skipped first grade because she was already reading at a collegiate level.

But for some reason, in high school, she just lost interest and dropped out. And that's when her dark side took over. Carrie could be very manipulative in the worst way. A man named Bobby, who dated Carrie for a while after meeting her at a concert, said not only did she steal his iPhone the first night they met, which he wouldn't discover until months later, she also told him that she was pregnant with his child when she really wasn't. Six weeks later, Bobby heard from someone else that Carrie had lung cancer and only had three months to live.

In fact, Carrie had told multiple people that she was dying. Some of her friends had even seen her come out of the bathroom with an announcement that she had just coughed up blood. Of course, neither of those things were true. It was just Carrie's way of garnering sympathy, and in most cases, leniency, for the shitty things she was always doing to the people closest to her. Back in Brooklyn, Carrie lost her job advice, but the media was unrelenting. Sightings of the hipster grifter were becoming daily fodder for blogs and message boards.

Some people shared stories of how she had supposedly ripped them off, while others traded their tales of seven minutes in heaven with Carrie for their 15 minutes of fame. Eventually, Carrie decided to defend herself publicly by participating in a video interview with a blog called Animal New York. In the video, Carrie apologized for everything that she had done. She acknowledged that she had made some "pretty terrible decisions" and she promised that she was rectifying the situation.

She also insisted that she had never scammed anyone in Brooklyn and claimed that all of her transgressions happened in Utah, where she planned to return to turn herself in eventually. Instead, Carrie Farrell hopped on a bus and traveled to Philadelphia to meet up with a friend named Sam Trimble, who she had met hanging around the Philly music scene. Unbeknownst to Carrie, her old friend Sam had set her up. As soon as she stepped foot off the bus around 11 p.m. on Sunday, May 4th, 2009,

The Philadelphia police were waiting on her and took her into custody. She was transported back to Utah, where she pleaded guilty to forgery, a third-degree felony, and attempted forgery, a Class A misdemeanor. In total, Carrie Farrell spent about six months in a Utah jail, in addition to a $1,000 fine and about $4,000 in restitution. In November 2009, in an interview conducted from her jail cell with the Daily Beast, Carrie described what life was like behind bars.

She talked about her cellmate, a tough blonde lady named Jersey, and she expressed frustration with how her saga had played out in the media, saying quote: "What makes me most angry, however, is having everyone believe I stole hundreds of thousands, faked cancer, was a prostitute, have children, screwed people in New York, etc. when I am actually here for a couple bad decisions I made while young and still living in Utah. If I really stole all of that money, why is my restitution less than $4,000?

and the reason it's that high is due to having to pay for extradition. Carrie also told the Daily Beast that what she missed most about life on the outside was music. She claimed that she had been convincing people to play Neutral Milk Hotel songs for her through the phone when she called. Once a hipster, always a hipster, I guess. And once a con artist, always a con artist. Almost 10 years later, in 2018, Carrie Farrell resurfaced using the name Carrie Enzer

She had sent a letter of assignment to the organizers of New York Fashion Week, posing as a fashion editor for Refinery29, in hopes of scoring an invite and press credentials for herself. And it almost worked. Carrie made it as far as the seating chart, before officials for the event were finally tipped off. Nice try, Carrie. Only a true talent could scam their way into Fashion Week. A true talent like Anna Delvey.

the status-obsessed socialite whose disastrous attempt at making an impression in New York's art scene made headlines in 2018. Anna had attended Fashion Week about five years earlier. That's where this story begins. A German heiress with delusions of grandeur leverages her social currency to live a life of luxury and pays for none of it on this episode of Swindled.

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I would offer you like $100,000 to wash my hair. But you wouldn't turn that down. I hate washing my hair myself. It's so annoying. It just takes so much time. It's not a good use of my time. But they can't put it on their face. Yes, they can. It says put on your body. Well, you just don't follow the rules like an idiot all the time. Anna Delvey's first visit to New York during the summer of 2013 was supposed to be temporary.

She had planned to attend Fashion Week before returning to Paris, but Anna had found the city so exciting and so accommodating that she decided to call it home. The timing was right. Anna was 22 years old and fresh off a breakup with her boyfriend back in Paris. She already had a job lined up at the New York office of Purple Magazine, whom she had interned for in France. Anna would figure everything else out along the way. She always did. Of course, being the heiress to the Delvey family fortune back in Germany made the transition a bit easier.

Anna's new friends in New York weren't exactly sure how her multi-million dollar trust fund had been established. But, apparently, Anna's father was a titan of the oil industry or solar panels or something like that. Others had heard that Anna's father was actually a Russian diplomat. Maybe it was both. Whatever the case may be, it was clear to everybody who met Anna that she had money and she wasn't afraid to use it for power and influence.

both of which came in quite handy in the elitist art and fashion worlds where Anna chose to reside. Her Instagram profile was filled with photos of herself at gallery openings and charity events, brushing shoulders with the who's who of whoever these people were at places like the Venice Biennale, the Frieze Art Fair, and Sotheby's. She socialized with runway models and fashion designers all over the world, always generating the kind of social currency that only money can buy. But it felt natural. Anna Delvey looked like she belonged.

She would always attend these events dressed head to toe in designer gear and usually accessorized with an expensive glass of wine and oversized black eyeglasses that punctuated her round face, reddish blonde hair, and pouty lips. She would engage and speak with a disarming European accent and follow every sentence with the kind of infectious giggle that would allow her to get away with saying borderline insults directly to her face. Not to say that Anna Delvey was an asshole. Far from it, actually.

Anna was inclusive and generous. She would hand out $100 tips to Uber drivers on a regular basis, and she would befriend people who would normally be considered lower on the social ladder. In fact, Anna's best friend in New York was a concierge at the hotel where she was living. Nefetari Davis met Anna Delvey in February 2017. Anna had just moved into Eleven Howard, a brand new hotel in Soho where Nef worked, and basically forced the friendship.

Anna would spend hours at the front desk just talking or asking for restaurant recommendations, and she would tip Neff hundreds of dollars for her time. Anna would also bring food and wine to her new friend while she worked, which was probably against hotel policy, but nobody cared, because according to Neff Davis, Anna basically ran the place. She told New York Magazine, quote, You know how Rihanna walks out with wine glasses? That was Anna. And they let her. Bye, Miss Delvey.

The reason Anna had so much free time to hang around the hotel is because she had already quit her job at Purple and had remained unemployed during the day when she wasn't lounging around her room. Anna spends her time and money shopping and pampering herself: acne, Michael Kors, Supreme, manicures, and massages. She also paid a cash advance of $4,500 to a personal trainer named Casey Duke, whose website boasts of more than 50 celebrity clients.

At night, Anna was dining out and bar hopping, socializing and partying. But most importantly, she was networking and trying to make connections with anyone of influence that crossed her path. Because Anna Delvey was on a mission. It wasn't her goal to live a life of leisure and room service. Anna had bigger aspirations. Anna had a vision. A vision for a quote, "dynamic visual arts center" that would feature a rotation of exhibitions and installations from the world's most renowned artists.

She wanted to curate a space that would include pop-up shops and a juice bar, as well as three restaurants featuring dishes from the world's best chefs. Anna even planned to have a German bakery on site, just because it reminded her of home. And she planned to call this new art center the Anna Delvey Foundation. And she wanted to launch the flagship location in New York City, before eventually expanding to Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Of course, such an ambitious project would not come cheap.

The New York location alone was estimated to cost as much as $40 million, mostly because of the property that Anna had identified to redevelop. Six floors and 45,000 square feet of the historic 19th century Church Missions House on the corner of Park Avenue and 22nd Street. There were definitely more affordable options, but Anna had already made up her mind. She wanted the Church Missions House, and Anna Delvey usually got what she wanted. Initially, the heiress began sniffing around for private funding.

Anna had Neff Davis organize lunches and dinners at the Eleven Howard restaurant, Bay Cuckoo, to host potential investors and other rich people that Anna had met. Everybody showed up. CEOs, famous athletes, Macaulay Culkin, even Martin Shkreli, the farmer bro himself, had attended one of these dinners, later telling New York Magazine from prison, quote, Anna did seem to be a popular woman about town who knew everyone. Even though I was nationally known, I felt like a computer geek next to her.

Yeah, that's great. Get back into your hole, Marty. Ultimately, Anna decided that she did not want her vision to be corrupted by outside money. She decided to finance the project on her own. She was a German heiress, after all. But she didn't want to invest all of her assets in one place. Plus, her overseas funds weren't the easiest to access. So Anna started exploring options for private loans. An acquaintance put her in touch with Andrew Lance, a partner in the real estate practice group at law firm Gibson Dunn.

Lance began contacting financial institutions on Anna's behalf with a letter that read, quote,

But there was no need to worry because any money she received would be, quote, fully secured by a letter of credit from UBS, the Swiss bank where her trust fund was held. And with that, the ball was rolling on the Anna Delvey Foundation. But in April 2017, everything else in Anna's life came to a complete and sudden halt. Eleven Howard, the hotel where Anna had been living for over a month and a half, realized that they did not have a credit card for her on file.

The hotel was brand new and oversights were bound to happen. Hotel management alerted Anna about the issue and she told them that she would arrange a wire transfer to pay her $30,000 bill. But days passed and that wire transfer never arrived. The managers of the hotel even approached their concierge employee Neff Davis about Anna's failure to pay since it was well known that the two were friends.

Neff reiterated the seriousness of the issue to Anna, and Anna extended an olive branch by having a 1975 bottle of Dom Perignon delivered to the staff. Either management at 11 Howard were not fond of wine, or they were finished with Anna Delvey's games. The bottle was returned to sender with a threat to Anna, letting her know that she would be soon locked out of her room, and that all of her belongings contained in that room would be held hostage until payment was made.

Anna responded by chartering a private jet and flying to Omaha, Nebraska to attend Warren Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway conference where she met Bill Gates at a private dinner. Just imagine all of the Instagram likes. When Anna returned to New York and to her room at 11 Howard, she was furious to discover that she had been locked out of her room and that all of her belongings were being held hostage just like the hotel had promised. And magically, the $30,000 wire transfer was soon delivered.

But Anna Delvey held a grudge. And just like Martin Shkreli had taught her, she purchased domain names and all of the hotel manager's names so she could possibly humiliate them later. And she planned to move out of the hotel as soon as possible. But first, she needed a vacation. Support for Swindled comes from SimpliSafe.

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Rachel Williams met Anna Delvey in early 2016.

She was at a Manhattan nightclub called the Happy Ending, sitting at the same table where Anna had just ordered bottle service. Rachel didn't know Anna, but she recognized her from Instagram. Rachel was immediately attracted to Anna's ambition, and as the night continued, the two acquaintances over sips of vodka learned more about one another. Like how Rachel had been working in the photo department at Vanity Fair for over six years, and how Anna was a wealthy German heiress without a permanent residence.

When the night came to a close, Anna paid the tab and the two women exchanged contact information. In the following weeks and months after Anna had returned from resetting her visa, she and Rachel Williams became closer friends. They went to dinner, had drinks, shared Casey Duke personal training sessions, and Anna always picked up the bill. It was almost an unspoken agreement between the friends because with the salary Rachel was earning at Vanity Fair, she simply couldn't keep up with that Anna Delvey lifestyle.

But Anna understood money was never an issue. A fact that was further proven when Anna invited Rachel to an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco where she had reserved a Riyadh for six nights in the middle of May at one of the world's most luxurious resorts in Marrakech. Their stay included three bedrooms, a private pool, an interior courtyard, and a personal butler. And it would cost them $7,000 a night. But it was no big deal.

the bill would be taken care of in its entirety, courtesy of Anna Delvey. In addition to Rachel Williams, Anna invited her personal trainer Casey Duke, her friend Neff Davis who decided not to go, and a friend of Rachel's named Jesse Hawk who was a photographer. Anna wanted Jesse to document their Moroccan experience on video as part of the development process of her arts foundation. Anna presumed the footage captured by Jesse would be perfect for a documentary about herself.

Unfortunately, the trip got off to a rocky start thanks to some kind of glitch with Anna's credit cards. For some reason, she wasn't able to purchase the plane tickets for herself and her friends. So she convinced Rachel to charge their airfare to her American Express card with the promise of reimbursement later. Once in Marrakesh, all of their worries were soon forgotten.

Anna and the group enjoyed massages and tennis lessons at the private resort. They took in some live Moroccan music on the streets and retreated to a private tour of Yves Saint Laurent's famous Majorelle Garden. Some days they lounged at the pool that overlooked a majestic view. On others, they explored the souks and markets of Morocco. And Jesse Hawk was there to film it all. You want it like this? Yeah. And this one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. That's fine, yeah, that's amazing. It's not seafood, cool. No.

But those worries soon returned when Anna's debit card was declined at every point of purchase. Apparently Anna had neglected to alert her bank that she would be traveling overseas. Again, Rachel Williams saved the day and charged Anna's shopping spree to her credit card. And again, Anna promised to pay her tab when they returned home from the trip.

However, Anna's financial issues were so persistent that it became the theme of the Moroccan getaway. Two days after the Delvey party's arrival, an employee of the resort was fired after it was discovered that the card Anna used to reserve the Riyadh had been declined. Hotel management enlisted the most intimidating employees on staff to demand a working card from the group. Anna, who made sure to let everyone know how inconvenienced she felt, made some unproductive phone calls to her bank while the rest of the group stood by awkwardly.

Eventually, Rachel Williams offered her card for the temporary hold just to ease the situation. But by the time the group checked out of the resort a few days later, Anna's financial situation was still not resolved, and the entire $62,000 stay was split between Rachel's personal and business credit cards. Rachel Williams returned to New York with an acquired debt that exceeded her annual salary, while Anna and Jesse continued their travels. The conference of the morgues?

Hi, my name is Anna Delvey. I stayed with you guys until last weekend, last week. I have a question. Can we get a helicopter from the Marrakesh airport to go to Casablanca airport tomorrow night? The following week, personal trainer Casey Duke, who had returned to New York from Morocco early due to illness, received a frantic phone call from Anna Delvey, who was alone at the Four Seasons in Casablanca. Surprise, there was a problem with her bank.

Anna's credit cards had been denied, and the hotel staff was threatening to call the police. Anna was crying, and she needed help. Casey spoke with the staff at the hotel and provided them with two different credit card numbers over the phone, but neither worked. The hotel resigned to the fact that the problem might be on their end and let Anna go, with a promise from Casey that she was good for it. Casey also offered to buy Anna a flight home. Anna asked if the flight could be first class.

On June 7th, 2017, Anna Delvey, back in New York, was moving into her new temporary residence at the Beekman Hotel in Lower Manhattan while Rachel Williams was still waiting to be reimbursed. Almost a month had passed since their trip, and Rachel had only received a $5,000 PayPal transfer from Anna. Rachel was struggling. She had to borrow $30,000 from her boyfriend at the time and a family friend just to pay her bills.

After a few more unsuccessful attempts at retrieving the funds, and an endless supply of empty promises from Anna, Rachel Williams began to panic. She sent a string of texts to her friend Anna, that read quote: "I would never had agreed to this if I knew it would take this long. Wires do not take weeks. Wires do not take days even. I feel like you're not being straight with me. Everything you say is shifty and vague. Nothing comes through. You're starting to sound like a fraud.

Rachel sent another text weeks later, in all caps, and seven exclamation marks that read, quote, I need to be reimbursed. Out of options and desperate, Rachel Williams finally contacted the police and explained the situation of how she thought her friend had ripped her off. A lieutenant at the police station in Chinatown reportedly told Rachel, quote, With your face, you could set up a GoFundMe page to get your money back. The lieutenant suggested filing a suit in civil court instead.

unbeknownst to Rachel Williams. At the time, she was just one of many on a list of people waiting to be paid by Anna Delvey. Mark Kramers, a London designer who Anna had hired to design the branding for her foundation, was sitting on an unpaid invoice of almost £17,000. The design firm attempted to contact Anna's financial advisor, a man named Peter W. Hineke, only to have their emails bounce back undelivered when they questioned Anna about Peter's disappearance. Anna responded, quote,

Peter passed away last month. Please refrain from contacting or mentioning any communication with him going forward. Meanwhile, 20 days into her stay at the Beekman, Anna had already been locked out of her room for non-payment. She owed more than $11,000 to the hotel and the wire transfer she promised never posted, leading to the confiscation of all of her belongings. On July 3rd, Anna used reward points for a two-night stay at the W Hotel in downtown New York.

It was probably the most honest financial transaction Anna Delvey had performed in months. But old habits die hard. Anna checked out of the hotel without paying her $500 mini bar tab. And this time, Anna Delvey had nowhere else to go. The 27-year-old German heiress was essentially homeless on the streets of New York with nothing but the designer activewear that she was currently wearing. She showed up uninvited to Casey Duke's apartment, who was busy entertaining a date.

After ignoring her personal trainer's not-so-subtle hints to find somewhere else to go, Anna spent the night on the couch. The next morning, Casey let Anna borrow a dress to wear, gave her a pep talk, and sent her on her way. But after Anna's departure, the trainer realized that her unwanted guests had tried the old Costanza-lead-behind trick with her laptop. Casey brought the computer downstairs and left it at the front desk. She instructed the doorman that a young girl would be retrieving it soon, and that no matter what, do not let that girl upstairs to her apartment.

Casey told the doorman to tell Anna that she wasn't home. Perhaps Casey underestimated just how little the heiress had going on. Anna returned for her computer midday and waited for hours in the lobby for her friend to return. Casey was trapped inside of her own apartment for the entire day before Anna finally decided to leave at midnight. Later that month, after a five-hour lunch at Lake Parker Meridian that included four glasses of wine and two smoked salmon sandwiches, Anna Delvey was arrested for trying to dine in Dash

Anna had tried to flee the restaurant after her credit cards were denied. She tried explaining to the restaurant staff that her aunt Bettina would be arriving from Germany shortly and would take care of the bill, but they weren't having it and called the police. Anna was charged with three misdemeanor counts of theft of services, which included the incidents at the Beekman and W Hotels who had filed charges of their own. Anna hired lawyer Todd Spodek and the heiress was released without bail. She had every intention of paying her obligations, Anna's lawyer told the media.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, she was unable to. These debts will be resolved immediately, but not even Todd Spodek was sure of his client's willingness or ability to pay. He made Anna sign a lien that gave him the rights to her assets just in case he was never paid. But Anna was grateful to have someone in her corner finally, and she asked Todd if she could sleep at his house for the time being.

After Anna's brush with the law, the New York Post published an article titled, "Wannabe Socialite Busted for Skipping Out on Pricey Hotel Bills." The article caught the attention of everyone in New York, especially Rachel Williams, who was still buried under a mountain of Anna's debt. It was time for an intervention. Rachel and Casey invited Anna to lunch where they confronted the heiress about her grifting ways. Anna cried and promised it was all a big misunderstanding. She said that as soon as her foundation was operational, everybody would be paid back.

Anna was delusional. The foundation wasn't going to happen. The building that she had been trying to lease had been rented to Stockholm-based Photografiska weeks ago. When Casey reminded Anna of that fact, the crying heiress called it "fake news." The intervention went nowhere. Anna was adamant that everything she had told them was true. About her past. About her wealth. About her plans.

Rachel and Casey left defeated and put Anna up in a hotel one last time with instructions to the front desk to remove the minibar and deny all room service. In September 2017, Anna Delvey failed to appear in court for her misdemeanor charges. Earlier that summer, she had deposited two checks totaling $15,000 into her bank account and she withdrew $8,200 before the checks were discovered to be fraudulent. She used the money to fly to California where she checked into a luxury addiction facility in Malibu

The following month, Rachel Williams told Anna that she would be in Beverly Hills soon for work and arranged a lunch date with her old pal. That day, when Anna left the premises of the rehab to meet up with Rachel, the police were waiting for her. She was arrested on six counts of grand larceny and attempted grand larceny. Apparently, Anna Delvey was involved in a much larger fraud than the theft of services she had become known for at hotels and restaurants.

But Rachel Williams already knew that, because Rachel Williams had assisted the New York Police Department with organizing the sting to arrest her friend. Normally, this is where I would try to sell you mail-ordered food or a vibrating toothbrush or something like that, but instead, I will use this time to direct you to Swindled's valued listener rewards program at patreon.com slash swindled.

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Anka Sorokina, or Anna Sorokin, was born on January 23, 1991, in a suburb of Moscow, Russia. Her father wasn't a diplomat or any kind of mogul. Anna's father is a former truck driver who now operates a heating and cooling business.

There was no wealth. There was no trust fund. In fact, almost everything that Anna claimed to be in New York was completely fabricated. Except for the fact that, according to her childhood friends in Russia, Anna has always been a little obsessed with fashion and popularity. Anna Sorokin was one of the most popular kids at her school in Russia. She was smart, active, and artsy. Everybody knew her name. But when Anna was 16 years old, her life changed drastically.

Her family relocated from Russia to a small, boring town in Germany where Anna had a difficult time fitting in. She struggled with reading, writing, and speaking the language, and her fellow students at the Catholic school nicknamed her "Barbie" because of her stylish outfits. When Anna graduated in 2011, she moved to London almost immediately, where she had been accepted into the prestigious Central Saint Martin School of Art.

but Anna never attended a single class. She rarely even stepped foot on campus. Instead, she moved back to Germany and began interning at a PR company in Berlin, which led to another internship in Paris for a fashion, arts, and culture magazine named Purple. Anna Sorkin felt like a new person. She changed her name to Anna Delvey, but Anna Delvey was still dependent on the Sorkins. Anna's parents paid for her apartment in Paris because her internship only paid 400 euros a month.

In New York, less than a year later, Anna had been staying in hotel rooms that cost more than 400 euros for a single night. So where exactly had all of Anna's new money come from? It's complicated, but the short answer is that it never existed at all. In fact, in March 2017, when Anna was still living large at Eleven Howard, her bank account balance was reportedly negative $9,000, and the red flags were always there.

There had been multiple instances during Anna Sworkin's time in New York where her credit cards didn't work and her friends were left on the hook for the bill. There were times when she would have friends book plane tickets for her and never pay them back, not to mention that she was constantly asking to sleep on people's couches or moving into friends' apartments and never paying a dime. It's also been reported that Anna had even stayed at Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarlane's weird Magnus East Clubhouse for almost four months straight. The company reportedly had to completely relocate offices just to get rid of her.

Another time, Anna hired a PR firm to organize her own birthday party at her favorite restaurant in Soho, and she never paid the tab. Everybody at the party noticed, but everyone just assumed it was an accident. But all of these relatively minor crimes paled in comparison to what Anna was being accused of now. In her quest to secure funding for the Anna Delvey Foundation in the form of a $22 million loan,

In November and December of 2016, the fake heiress had submitted documents that confirmed a net worth of 60 million euros to at least two different financial institutions. To start the loan process, the New York City-based private equity firm Fortress Investment Group requested $100,000 from Anna to verify her assets. Anna was able to provide Fortress that amount by taking out a line of credit at Citi National Bank where she had applied for the same loan.

A due diligence officer named Dennis Anabajo was assigned the Delvey account, and he immediately found calls for concern in the young heiress' documents. Anna's place of birth on her German identification card did not match what was on her passport. One said Russia, the other said Germany. Anna blamed the error on the agency that issued her the card. Anabajo had also come across something that he liked, and that was Anna herself. The two had met at 11 Howard on three separate occasions to discuss the loan.

And after one of those meetings, Dennis had texted Anna, quote, let me come upstairs and say a proper goodbye. In fact, Dennis Anabajo texted Anna a lot, over 150 times during the loan application process, although not all of the texts were focused on business. In another, he told Anna, quote, I'm forcing myself not to kiss you because you are insanely beautiful. What an impressive show of restraint. It's amazing that Anna Sorkin got as far in the loan process as she did.

but once Fortress alerted her of their plans to travel to Switzerland to verify her trust accounts in person, Anna voluntarily withdrew from the process. She was refunded the remaining $55,000 of the $100,000 she had paid to them, and she promptly spent all of it on her personal expenses. Meanwhile, City National Bank, who had loaned Anna the money, sat idly by waiting for a promised wire transfer, just like seemingly everyone else in New York.

including Blade, the company that chartered a private jet for Anna's flight to Omaha. When the charter company attempted to collect the $35,000 owed to them, Anna provided excuse after excuse as to why payment had been delayed, before eventually sending a confirmation from Deutsche Bank for a wire transfer that never came through.

Later, when asked why Anna was given free access to a plane in the first place, Kathleen McCormick, Blade's chief financial officer, said that the company's CEO, Rob Wiesenthal, had, quote, "...briefly, socially run into her, and him knowing her through those circles, we felt she was good for payment."

Anna Sorkin's crime spree didn't end there. In April 2017, she used the same check-kiting scheme that would pay for her trip to California at a later date to withdraw $70,000 in cash after making a deposit of $160,000 using bad checks. Anna used a portion of that money to pay her $30,000 tab at Eleven Howard.

For over 10 months, Anna Sorkin had orchestrated a type of Ponzi scheme where she borrowed from banks and friends to repay other banks and other friends if she repaid them at all. And she stole services from hotels and restaurants and charter companies to live the life she had always dreamed of having. And it worked for a while. Anna found herself in the finest restaurants New York had to offer. She found herself in the company of the Manhattan elite. She even found herself in a Moroccan paradise. And she hadn't inherited or earned any of it.

But now, after scamming multiple people and businesses out of a total of $275,000, Anna Sorkin found herself in prison. When media outlets reached out to Anna's parents in Germany, her father deflected any responsibility for his daughter's behavior, saying, quote, She is a selfish personality. We can't do anything about it. We raised her well. And he added, I really do hope my daughter finds what she is looking for, whatever it is.

Anna Sorkin rejected a plea deal that would have seen her released from prison and deported in less than two years. She was going to be deported anyway for an expired visa, whether she was guilty or not. Instead, Anna pleaded not guilty and opted to stand trial after the judge determined that she was a flight risk. Anna remained incarcerated on Rikers Island for over a year before her trial started. In an interview from her cell with New York Magazine's The Cut,

Anna, referring to the latest accommodations for which she would not be paying for, told them, quote, This place is not that bad at all, actually. People seem to think it's horrible, but I see it as like this sociological experiment. Anna also showed some remorse, but stopped just short of apologizing, quote, I am very upset that things went that way, and I didn't mean for it to happen, but I really can't do anything about it being in here. She had also taken exception to all the labels the media had tagged her with,

She said she was never trying to be a socialite and that yes, she had dinners, but they were work dinners. Quote, I wanted to be taken seriously. Well, at Rikers Island, Anna Sorkin was being taken seriously because she couldn't stop fighting and disobeying orders inside of the prison. Between her arrest date in October 2017 to her trial date in late March 2019, Anna was disciplined over 30 times. She had even spent a few weeks in solitary confinement during the holidays.

Anna's no-fucks-given attitude, combined with her crimes of cheating the rich, had won over her fellow inmates and captured the attention of onlookers around the world. But the show was just getting started. Anna Sorkin's trial began on March 27th, 2019, and it became immediately evident that it was going to be anything but typical. On her first day in court, Anna arrived wearing a low-cut black dress with a matching choker around her neck.

an outfit that some in the media suggested was more suitable for a night out on the town rather than a date with the judge and jury. Anna's, quote, mysterious chic courtroom attire was curated by stylist Anastasia Walker, and according to Anna's lawyer Todd Spodek, it was part of their defense strategy. He told GQ, quote, It is imperative that Anna dress appropriately for the trial. Anna's style was a driving force in her business and life, and it is part of who she is. I want the jury to see that side of her."

The fashion show continued for the duration of the trial. There were the Victoria Beckham slacks, the Saint Laurent blouse, the snakeskin print mini dress, more chokers, stylish eyeglasses. Someone even created an Instagram account called Anna Delvey Court Looks to document the defendant's wardrobe. Anna seemed to be relishing in the attention.

In fact, day three of the trial was delayed for over two hours because Anna's chosen outfit for the day was dirty and wrinkled, and she refused to appear wearing her Rockers Island uniform. Judge Diane Kiesel was not happy. She told Anna, quote, This is unacceptable and inappropriate. This is not a fashion show.

This is Anna's lawyer, Todd Spodek. It's not that she didn't want to come out only because of the clothes. She's going through a major criminal trial that's publicized every day. It's emotional and it's her life. The rest of Anna's trial was relatively boring in comparison. The only other notable event was when juror number nine fell asleep repeatedly while assistant district attorney Catherine McGraw laid out the evidence against Ms. Sorkin.

The jurors' snores were so disruptive that the judge suggested that he take a nap outside during their upcoming scheduled break. The juror declined, telling the judge, quote, I'm not taking a nap outside, miss. As a result, the juror was dismissed from the trial completely.

A fate that probably made juror number nine the envy of his peers. Because as Business Insider magazine put it, the ensuing weeks of the trial featured, quote, a dull parade of bankers. They read through a series of documents and emails and text message exchanges, and they analyzed the metadata and search history of Ms. Sorkin's devices to prove that her accountants, such as the late Peter W. Hineke, were a figment of her imagination. Interesting, sure, but every day for a month. No thank you.

In fact, as the trial trudged along, the public gallery became more and more empty. It seemed as if everyone had grown bored and stayed home. Not even Anna's parents had bothered to show up. At one point, Anna was overheard whispering to her lawyer, quote, Where is everyone? Just further proof that it takes a true creative genius to present white-collar crime cases in an entertaining way. Don't forget to rate and review. The highlight of the trial, if there were any, came in the third week when key witness Rachel Williams testified against her former friend,

Rachel's testimony was full of tears as she described what it was like being caught in Anna's web of lies and having to deal with the fallout. Quote, I'm losing it. I'm up every night having attacks and I'm late for work. I'm getting phone calls from American Express, which just causes more panic attacks because I'm just telling them the same things Anna's telling me, which is it should be just any day now. It should be any day now.

After her testimony, Rachel Williams told reporters that she didn't want to make the trial about herself and that she wishes she had never met Anna, saying, quote, This is the most traumatic thing I've ever been through. And then the most traumatic thing that Rachel Williams had ever been through turned into a six-figure Simon & Schuster book deal and an HBO-optioned television show. Tragic, really. Ultimately, the prosecution set out to prove that Anna Sorkin's actions were calculated and full of intent, telling the jury, quote,

We all know what a white lie is. A white lie is telling a girlfriend that her butt does not look big in those jeans, making up fake bank documents, making up fake accountants, making up fake identity documents. Those are not white lies. Those are lies that tell you the defendant had criminal intent in this case. I urge you to come to a verdict that is in accord with both the law and the evidence, and that is that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Anna Sorkin chose not to testify at her trial, but her lawyer Todd Spodek did enough talking for the both of them. His defense was based on the fact that Anna had every intention of paying everyone back,

He argued that the appearance of wealth was necessary in the world in which Anna lived, a world of fake people where money was made on hype alone. Spodek explained his logic to Insider, saying, quote,

You're 25 and trying to create this empire with all these loans and complex things. She got it together. If somehow this business plan got a consultant at McKinsey who worked with her and really helped her and she was in grad school and went to fucking Harvard Business School and had all the right players, could we have it? But she didn't have those opportunities. Spodek further argued that the banks had never seriously considered giving Anna a loan. Therefore, no one involved in that transaction had been harmed. Therefore, Anna had not broken any laws.

Furthermore, Spoda claimed that since Anna had paid several people and businesses back, that there was never any intent to harm anyone.

The lawyer agreed that his client's actions were unethical and unorthodox, but he believed that Anna believed that eventually she would be able to pay everyone back. I think that there's a lack of intent for any of the crimes in the indictment. What she did do is take advantage of a system that basically opened their arms and doors to anyone who had the appearance of being rich. Spodek continued, quote, When you have $60 million, or when you give the impression that you have $60 million,

All the doors are open. I'm not saying it was appropriate to pretend to be a German heiress or falsify documents, but she would never get the opportunity to even talk to these people unless they believed she was a German heiress. So shame on them. I do not believe she had the intent to ever commit a crime. Whether she owes people money, that's a fact of life. That's the reality of doing business in New York. In other words, Anna Sorkin had to fake it until she made it.

But wanted to be a participant.

Anna didn't wait for opportunities. Anna created opportunities. Anna believed that she would have the funds to pay every single person back. In the end, Anna Sorkin was found guilty of four counts of theft of services, three counts of grand larceny, and one count of attempted grand larceny. However, she was acquitted of the grand larceny count related to her attempts to obtain the $22 million loan and the charge of theft related to the $60,000 Moroccan vacation.

All told, Anna Sorkin was facing up to 15 years in prison. I feel pleased with the fact that the jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed our logic and acquitted her of the top charge as well as the charge against Rachel Williams. I'm saddened that she was convicted of some of the other charges, but I understand there was significant paper evidence and we sort of understood that a full acquittal was not necessarily a sure thing in a case like this.

Anna's sentencing hearing took place about a month later, on May 9th, 2019. Assistant DA Catherine McGraw explained why Anna should be given the higher end of the sentencing guidelines. The defendant repeatedly told people again and again that she was a German heiress with a side of misfortune. There is a great risk of the defendant, once she is released from incarceration, that she will simply go out and attempt to perpetrate a similar scheme again.

Before these proceedings and during the proceedings, the defendant has shown almost no remorse for the crimes that she committed. She seemed to be basking in the press attention rather than thinking seriously about the crimes that she committed and how they affected people. She had a friend in her tweet who would be her preferred actress to play her in the movie version of her life. Margot Robbie. That's the actress Anna would choose to portray her. Just in case you were wondering.

She was not reflecting on the harm that she had caused to the financial institutions and the businesses for whom she had stolen goods and services. The defendant repeatedly delayed these court proceedings because she was not happy with the clothing that was offered to her by the Department of Corrections. On numerous occasions, the people had to send their witnesses back home and have them come on different days because the defendant was unhappy with the clothing that she had on offer.

Judge Diane Kiesel agreed.

Anna Sorgen was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison and required to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution. Anna addressed the court briefly and apologized for the mistakes she made. However, moments before she was sentenced, in an interview with the New York Times, Anna was singing a different tune, telling the reporter, quote, She added,

Anna had also displayed a brief moment of self-awareness in the interview when she admitted, quote, I'm not a good person. When the New York Times reporter asked if she would do the same things again if given the chance, Anna laughed and said, yes, probably so. Again, this is Anna's lawyer, Todd Spodek.

Despite the potential 12 years behind bars currently standing in her way, Anna Sorkin's future is bright.

She said she plans to write two books while incarcerated. One will be a memoir about her exploits in New York, and the other will be about her experience in prison. When Anna is finally released from Rikers, she will be deported to Germany. From there, she hopes to move back to London where she plans to launch her own investment firm with the money she will undoubtedly make from selling her story about ripping people off.

There will probably be movie deals and sponsorships. She'll probably turn into some kind of social media influencer. She will be set up for life. And then finally, maybe for the first time ever, Anna Sorkin will no longer have to fake it.

Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard.

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