She defrauded the elite into millions of dollars. “Money was never my motive. I was in power.” Who is Annie Delvey?

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It was thanks to Jessica Pressler’s article “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People”, which appeared in New York Magazine, that Anna Delvey’s case gained publicity. The trickster, claiming to be a German heiress, turned out to be in fact the daughter of a truck driver and shopkeeper, both from Russia.

Who is Annie Delvey?

In 2007, Anna left Russia at the age of 16, moving with her family to Germany, where she stayed until her final exams. 4 years later, she enrolled in the prestigious London University of Central Saint Martins, where, however, she completed her studies after only one semester. Then the ambitious Russian woman decided to move to Paris, where she started an internship in the fashion magazine “Purple”. And it was in Paris that she began to introduce herself under the changed name – Delvey. In 2013, she went to New York for Fashion Week, where she decided to stay longer, moving to the local branch of the magazine.

An ambitious Russian woman, delighted with New York, wanting to be part of the local elite, began to introduce herself as the daughter of a German millionaire, who was to provide her with a trust fund worth several dozen million euros. The 22-year-old was to assure that she would spend it on the development of art. So to make her stories credible, she set up a foundation to bring together wealthy art collectors to raise $ 22 million to “expand and promote her foundation.”

Thanks to colorful stories, Delvey quickly gained the sympathy and trust of the New York party cream, which made her a regular frequenter of the most prestigious events, where she tracked her next victims. The Russian woman not only extorted money for the foundation, but also took out loans from high-ranking friends who funded her luxurious trips or dinners in the most prestigious restaurants.

Delvey used primarily cash, she owed her credit cards, and the checks she issued were blank. Over time, however, her lies began to come to light – problems arose with the still unpaid payments for hotels and other services, or still unrepaid loans to friends. And it was one of her friends who reported Delvey to the police.

Rachel DeLoache Williams was pulled over by Delvey for nearly 70,000. hole. (PLN 275 thousand). When she found out that she was wanted for banking fraud, she decided to report her “friend” to the police. Some time later, in October 2017, Delvey, or rather Sorokin, was arrested. She was imprisoned for 4 to 15 years for fraud, extortion and theft. Although she was released in February 2021, a month later she was arrested again for exceeding the validity of her visa, and is still in custody to this day.

– “My motive was never money … I was hungry for power” – she emphasized in an interview with “The New York Times”.

For the permission to make a series about herself, Anna Sorokin was to receive about $ 300,000 from Netflix, which allowed her to pay off some of her debts.