Fake millionairess from Aachen released from prison
As "Russkaya Germaniya" writes, socialite Anna Delvey came to New York in 2013 to conquer high society. Dressed in Dior and Gucci, the 23-year-old brunette quickly became one of the rich and famous. She was their equal, if not superior: her family's fortune in Germany amounted to 60 million euros, invested in trust funds. The capital belonged to her father, whom she called either a diplomat or a business magnate.
Anna's lifestyle in New York matched that of a wealthy heiress: she lived in luxury hotels, ate at the best restaurants, wore only designer clothes, hired personal trainers who worked with celebrities, and invariably left $100 tips for waiters and concierges. But most importantly, she got to know all of New York's elite. She was invited to private parties where movie stars, TV stars, and top managers of major companies gathered. Anna became everyone's favorite: besides her fabulous wealth, she had an unparalleled talent for gaining people's trust.
She appeared at all social events. Millionaires put her up in chateaus and chalets "for members only." They flew her on private jets. Soon she began hosting her own lavish parties. True, sometimes oddities occurred: occasionally she would invite friends to a restaurant or on trips to exotic countries, and then it would suddenly turn out that she had "forgotten her wallet" or that her credit card wasn't working for some reason, and friends had to pay.
But Anna was so charming, and her friends were so rich, that they didn't pay attention: after all, for people of their level, an extra few thousand dollars is a small expense, and anyone can forget their wallet at home. Later they said: "It seemed like she had so much money that she simply forgot to keep track of it."
The heiress to German millions came to New York not just to have fun. By her 25th birthday, Delvey was planning to establish her own foundation with a private club for the cream of society. The foundation was to promote contemporary art, and the club would gather the most fashionable artists, the most popular performers, and the richest businessmen.
For the project, Delvey had her eye on a five-story building in the center of Manhattan. The renovation and design were to be handled by Gabriel Calatrava, a trendy young architect, son of architecture superstar Santiago Calatrava, and of course, also one of Anna's new friends. Calatrava, through his firm, helped her secure the building.
Contracts were already being signed with world-class artists whose works sell at auctions for millions of dollars. The exhibition plans included Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Tracey Emin, and the renowned Christo had agreed to handle the design of the building for the opening ceremony. Delvey also planned to open branches of the foundation in Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Dubai. The only thing left was to pay for this wonderful idea. The project was estimated at over $40 million. Anna supposedly had $20 million ready (according to her and fake documents, as it turned out), and she needed to borrow another $22 million. A huge sum, but surely her influential friends would be willing to vouch for Miss Delvey.
The Delvey myth began to crumble at the end of 2016, when the five-star hotel where she was staying finally demanded payment of her bills. Her card was blocked, as were several of her other bank cards. Anna moved to another equally upscale hotel, then a third, and ran up debts at all of them. Bills from expensive restaurants where Anna had left only promises to pay, and from workers—stylists, trainers, designers—who were tired of waiting for payment, started piling up. Banks and financiers who were planning to invest in the multi-million dollar private foundation project also sensed something was wrong and began checks…
In 2017, she was arrested. The total amount of fraud was $275,000. In May 2019, a New York court sentenced Delvey to prison "from 4 to 12 years" (she could be released earlier if she paid restitution to the victims). But most importantly, it was then revealed who Miss Delvey really was.
Her real name is Anna Vadimovna Sorokina. She is originally from Domodedovo, a suburb of Moscow. When she was 16, her family moved to Germany, to North Rhine-Westphalia. In the town of Eschweiler near Aachen, Anna graduated from high school. Her father is not a millionaire, but a truck driver, and lives modestly with his wife and younger child.
According to classmates, Anya always easily made friends and got out of any situation. After high school, she went to London, where she enrolled in college but dropped out and got an internship at the fashion magazine Purple. Usually an intern is a small fry, but Anna tried very hard to become part of the fashion scene. She lived on 400 euros a month, her parents helped as much as they could—but she moved to the fashion capital Paris, and then to the USA, where the "millionaire heiress Miss Delvey" was born.
The story of Delvey-Sorokina is unique. An immigrant girl, neither particularly beautiful (in photos she looks like a rather awkward four-eyes) nor educated (she didn't even finish college), speaking German and English not very correctly, without a penny to her name, became a socialite and, on sheer personal charm alone, swindled all of New York high society for years. Even the hardened wolves of Wall Street never thought to check whether her "millionaire dad" existed, or to ask where the "heiress from Cologne" got her Russian accent. And yet, she really almost became a real millionairess.
Sorokina-Delvey spent two years in prison, and there, surprisingly, she earned her first honest money: two major series producers, Netflix and HBO, paid her large sums for the right to make a film about her. Even more than what Sorokina owed in total. With this money, Anna paid off all her debts and was released. She is now being deported from the US to Germany, whose citizenship she holds. She just turned 30, in the prime of her life. As her lawyer Todd Spodek said, "without a doubt, we will hear about her again." Talent cannot be hidden, even if it is criminal talent.