Anna Delvey stunned New York's elite with her money-making schemes. She claimed to have a $60 million trust fund and managed to defraud banks and people of $275,000. Did Anna Delvey actually have money? Her wealth came from complex schemes, fake documents, and social manipulation.
Anna Sorokin’s Early Life and Identity Shift
The story of wealth that fooled New York's elite started nowhere near Manhattan's shining towers. Anna Sorokin was born in January 1991 in Domodedovo, Russia. Her real story stands in stark contrast to the socialite persona she created. Let's take a closer look at her path from modest beginnings to see how she funded her schemes.
From Russia to Germany: Her real background
Nothing about Anna's early life suggested the glamorous existence she would claim later. She grew up in an ordinary middle-class Russian household with her father working as a truck driver and her mother running a small convenience store. Her family moved to Germany when she turned 16, settling in Eschweiler, a small town near Cologne.
Anna went to gymnasium (the German equivalent of high school) where her classmates remember her isolation due to limited German skills. Notwithstanding that, she displayed early signs of ambition and artistic talent. She moved to London after graduation to attend Central Saint Martins, a prestigious art school, but left before finishing her studies.
Anna's background shows a stark difference between her actual upbringing and the aristocratic European lineage she created. Her parents worked hard but were nowhere near the wealthy benefactors she described to her Manhattan victims. This modest beginning makes her transformation even more fascinating and explains why she wanted to completely reinvent herself.
Adopting the name Anna Delvey
Anna's transformation from Sorokin to Delvey marked a vital step in her elaborate con. She worked briefly at a public relations company in Germany after leaving London. She then moved to Paris and got an internship at Purple magazine. "Anna Delvey" emerged during this time in Paris.
The name "Delvey" was a calculated choice. She picked this name because:
- It had a European aristocratic ring
- Research about the name was difficult due to its uncommon nature
- It carried old-money sophistication
- It was memorable yet vague enough to support different origin stories
This new identity became her ticket into elite social circles. Anna gave vague answers when asked about her background. She sometimes hinted at German heritage, other times suggested Russian connections, but always implied substantial family wealth. This strategic ambiguity made her claims hard to question while letting her adapt her story as needed.
Why she created a new identity
Anna created this new identity out of practical need and psychological ambition. Her fabricated background gave her direct access to exclusive opportunities instead of climbing social ladders through legitimate means.
The Delvey persona solved her biggest problem: getting money without having any. She presented herself as a wealthy heiress waiting for trust fund access. This clever positioning made her cash flow issues seem temporary rather than showing true insolvency. Banks and individuals believed they would get repaid once her supposed trust fund became available.
This identity shift also gave her psychological benefits. Anna Delvey helped Sorokin escape her ordinary past and become the confident, cosmopolitan woman she wanted to be. Her new identity let her act with the entitlement typical of those born into wealth and privilege.
The creation of Anna Delvey was more than just changing names. She built a meticulous personal brand to extract money from New York's elite circles. Her detailed background story, practiced mannerisms, and strategic networking laid the groundwork for all her financial schemes.
Entering New York’s Elite Circles
Anna's rise in Manhattan's social scene showcased remarkable planning. She transformed from a magazine intern to a front-row guest at exclusive events. Her "Anna Delvey" persona needed the perfect backdrop to make her fictional wealth believable—New York City fit perfectly.
Internship at Purple magazine
Anna's first strategic move was landing an internship at Purple magazine in Paris. This fashion publication became more than a job—it opened doors to elite circles. She learned fashion trends and studied wealthy patrons' behavior, their language, and unspoken social rules.
Purple magazine gave Anna something invaluable: credibility. The fashion world welcomes unique personalities, which helped her build her mysterious heiress image. Her role let her watch wealthy people up close and learn their mannerisms, which she later copied perfectly.
Attending Fashion Week and staying in NYC
Anna made her big move in 2013 when Purple sent her to New York Fashion Week. This business trip turned into her launch pad. She stayed in New York after Fashion Week ended.
She made a calculated choice that revealed her early funding strategy.
Instead of going back to Europe, she positioned herself as a fashion insider with European connections—a story that carried weight in New York's social circles. Her Purple magazine background helped her access exclusive events where she built her network.
Money management during this early phase came from several clever tactics:
- She used Purple magazine connections to get invites to events with free food and drinks
- She built relationships with people who would cover immediate costs
- She projected such believable wealth that businesses gave her credit, expecting payment later
Building social connections through image
Anna knew image meant everything as she planned her financial moves. She carefully created her public persona and focused on details that signaled wealth.
Her wardrobe choices showed careful planning—she chose understated designer brands over flashy logos. This subtle approach sent the right signals to real elites. She dressed like old money, not new money.
She picked her spots carefully. Upscale hotels, restaurants, and private clubs became her regular haunts. People started associating her with genuine wealth because they saw her in these exclusive spaces.
Her networking strategy worked brilliantly. She connected with rising stars in art, fashion, and tech—people with enough status to boost her credibility but who were still building their own reputations and less likely to dig into her background.
Anna had no real money during this time. Her carefully crafted image created a perfect illusion of wealth. She built a convincing facade through consistent appearances and strategic social connections, setting the stage to chase bigger goals: securing major funding for her ambitious projects.
How Anna Delvey Paid for Her Lifestyle
Anna Delvey's glamorous facade masked a complex web of financial tricks she used to maintain her fake wealthy persona. She created clever ways to get money from businesses and people since she had no real wealth to support her expensive lifestyle.
Lavish tipping to gain favor
Her calculated generosity became the foundation of her scheme. She gave out $100 tips to hotel staff, concierges, and service workers who did even small tasks. This generous tipping created an instant impression of wealth and built a network of staff members eager to help her.
"People would fight to take her packages upstairs," recalled Neff, a hotel concierge. "Fight, because you knew you were getting $100".
This tipping approach worked on many levels. It strengthened her wealthy heiress image, got her special treatment, and built trust with hotel management who later gave her credit based on her spending habits.
Using fake wire transfers
Anna cleverly used the banking system's delays by promising wire transfers that never came through. She would confidently tell people who asked about unpaid bills that transfers were "on the way" from European banks.
She managed to put $160,000 in fraudulent checks into a Citibank account and took out $70,000 before the checks bounced. She also convinced Signature Bank to give her a $100,000 overdraft that she never paid back.
Skipping hotel bills and restaurant tabs
Hotel-hopping became Anna's trademark move. She ran up a $30,000 bill at 11 Howard in SoHo, which included meals at Le Coucou restaurant. The Beekman Hotel later locked her out after she failed to pay $11,518.59 for her stay.
Restaurant bills often met with her claim about non-working credit cards. A waiter at Sant Ambroeus tried about 12 different credit card numbers she gave—all got declined. Her friend had to cover the $300 bill.
Borrowing from friends under false pretenses
Anna's most notorious scam happened during a Morocco trip. She asked her friend Rachel Williams, a Vanity Fair photo editor, to join what she promised would be an "all-expenses-paid" luxury vacation.
They stayed at La Mamounia, a five-star resort, in a $7,000-per-night private villa where Anna's credit cards kept getting declined. She convinced Williams to put the $62,000 bill on her personal and corporate cards when pressed for payment—this amount exceeded Williams' yearly salary.
Anna sent Williams only $5,000 through PayPal months later, despite endless promises about delayed wire transfers. This left her friend in financial ruin and led to Williams helping authorities catch Anna.
The Anna Delvey Foundation and Loan Attempts
The biggest scam in Anna Delvey's money-making scheme was her ambitious Anna Delvey Foundation (ADF), a private members' club and art foundation that never went beyond fancy proposals. She used this made-up business to try getting millions from banks.
Creating a fake business plan
Anna made friends with Gabriel Andres Calatrava, renowned architect Santiago Calatrava's son, in fall 2015. She got him to design her dream: a Soho House-style private club with a bar, nightclub, and art exhibition space. Her foundation would take up the Church Missions House—RFR Holdings' massive 45,000 sq ft property.
Her 80-page prospectus showed off an impressive list of art world connections, including:
- Contemporary artists like Urs Fischer, Cindy Sherman, and Ed Ruscha
- Designer Daniel Arsham and former Warhol Museum director Eric Shiner
- Sotheby's vice-president Noah Wunsch
The business plan claimed she started collecting art as a child and dropped names of art-world stars next to plans for pop-up shops and famous artists' exhibitions.
Faking financial documents
Anna created fake bank documents that showed she had €60 million in Swiss bank accounts. She later admitted that making these fake statements with Microsoft Word and Photoshop "took surprisingly little time".
She made up two fake accountants—"Peter Hennecke" and "Bettina Wagner"—and gave them AOL email addresses that led back to her. These "financial advisors" would send emails saying Anna got a trust fund at age 25 from her grandfather, who they claimed sold a "huge art collection".
Trying to secure a $22 million loan
Anna sent fake documents to City National Bank as part of a $22 million loan application in November 2016. The bank turned her down, so she went to Fortress Investment Group, which said they'd look at her application if she paid $100,000 for legal costs.
She proved resourceful and convinced City National to give her a temporary $100,000 overdraft on January 12, 2017, promising quick repayment. She then tried using this money to get a $25 million loan from Fortress.
Using the illusion of wealth to gain trust
Anna managed to keep her wealthy image through careful deception. Money talks always ended with her confident promise to "wire funds from her account in Germany".
Her lawyer said she just wanted to "fake it 'til she made it". But prosecutors pointed out her calculated moves: "Why would someone whose intent is other than criminal take all of these actions? Making up fake accountants, making up fake documents—those are not white lies".
The whole scheme fell apart at the time City National and Fortress wanted proof of her assets. She couldn't show real documents about where her money came from, and her carefully built facade crumbled.
The Morocco Trip and Final Collapse
Anna Delvey's most daring scam ended up being an extravagant Moroccan getaway that exposed her web of lies. Her elaborate facade crumbled in May 2017 when a luxurious escape turned into the beginning of her downfall.
Convincing friends to front expenses
Anna invited three people to join her on what she promised would be an "all-expenses-paid" luxury vacation to Morocco in spring 2017. Rachel Williams, a Vanity Fair photography editor, fitness trainer Kacy Duke, and a videographer accepted her invitation.
She told them she needed to "reset" her Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). She also claimed to want footage for a "behind-the-scenes documentary" about her foundation.
Khloé Kardashian's taste inspired Anna to book an incredible private villa at La Mamounia, one of Marrakech's finest hotels. The traditional Moroccan riad came with three bedrooms, a private swimming pool, and a personal butler – all for about $7,000 each night. She sent hotel confirmation emails to her friends and managed to keep a relaxed attitude about these lavish arrangements.
The pattern started when some minor flight booking issues came up. Williams put the plane tickets on her American Express card after Anna promised quick repayment. This was just the start of what would become a much bigger problem.
The $62,000 hotel bill ordeal
Everything fell apart on May 18 when the hotel's billing system rejected all Anna's payment methods. Hotel staff hovered anxiously while Anna tearfully convinced Williams to temporarily cover the bill with her credit card. She promised to pay Williams back once they got to New York.
Williams had to use both her personal and company credit cards to cover the $62,000 balance. This is a big deal as it means that the amount was more than her yearly salary. After returning home, Anna sent only $5,000 through PayPal months later. Her promises of wire transfers never came through.
How this led to her arrest
The Morocco disaster pushed Williams to reach out to others who had lent Anna money. She found that everyone had heard different stories about Anna's family wealth. This discovery made Williams decide to help authorities.
Anna couldn't find a place to stay by July 2017 after hotels kicked her out for unpaid bills. Williams helped police set up Anna's arrest in Los Angeles five months after the Morocco incident on October 3, 2017.
The court charged Anna with multiple counts of grand larceny and theft of services worth over $200,000. Surprisingly, she was found not guilty of the specific charge related to the Morocco incident.
Conclusion
Anna Delvey's elaborate scheme ended up crumbling after the Morocco ordeal exposed her web of lies. The fake heiress had dazzled New York's elite with claims of $60 million that never existed before facing justice. Her story shows how perception transforms into reality as people believe what they want to see.
FAQs
Q1. How did Anna Delvey initially fund her lavish lifestyle in New York?
Anna Delvey initially funded her lifestyle through a combination of tactics, including strategic networking, using her fashion industry connections for free events, cultivating relationships with people who could cover immediate expenses, and projecting an image of wealth that led establishments to extend her credit.
Q2. What was the Anna Delvey Foundation, and how did Anna use it to attempt to secure loans?
The Anna Delvey Foundation was a fictional private members' club and art foundation that Anna used as a vehicle to attempt to secure millions in loans. She created a fake business plan, forged financial documents showing she had €60 million in Swiss bank accounts, and tried to secure a $22 million loan from various financial institutions.
Q3. How did Anna Delvey manage to stay in luxury hotels without paying?
Anna used fake wire transfer promises to delay payments, accumulated large bills at hotels like 11 Howard and The Beekman, and used her carefully crafted wealthy image to gain the trust of hotel staff. She also used lavish tipping to gain favor with hotel employees, which helped her maintain her facade of wealth.
Q4. What role did the Morocco trip play in Anna Delvey's downfall?
The Morocco trip was a turning point in Anna's scheme. She invited friends on an "all-expenses-paid" luxury vacation but couldn't pay the $62,000 hotel bill. This led her friend Rachel Williams to cover the cost and subsequently cooperate with authorities, ultimately resulting in Anna's arrest.
Q5. How much money did Anna Delvey actually manage to defraud from banks and individuals?
Anna Delvey managed to defraud banks and individuals of approximately $275,000 through various schemes, including fake wire transfers, fraudulent check deposits, and convincing friends to cover her expenses under false pretenses.
