Age, Biography, and Wiki
Anna Sorokin, alias Anna Delvey, was born in Domodedovo, Russia. At the age of 16, she moved to Germany with her family. She grew up in a middle-class environment, with her father driving a truck and her mother owning a small convenience store. Delvey's journey into the world of con artistry began when she left Germany at 19 to pursue fashion in Paris. She eventually adopted the name Anna Delvey to fit into the upper-class scenes she aspired to join.
In 2013, Delvey interned for the French fashion magazine Purple in New York City, where she began to orchestrate her elaborate scams. She created fake financial documents and forged wire transfers to convince people she had a multi-million-euro trust fund. This allowed her to fund a lavish lifestyle, often staying in upscale hotels and renting luxury apartments without paying.
| Occupation | Player |
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| Date of Birth | 23 January 1991 |
| Age | 34 Years |
| Birth Place | Domodedovo, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Horoscope | Aquarius |
| Country | Russia |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Anna Delvey's physical measurements are not widely documented, her presence in the media often highlights her fashion sense and ability to blend into high-end social environments.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Anna Delvey's personal relationships are not extensively covered in the media, but her interactions were often transactional and manipulative, as part of her scam to maintain her facade as a wealthy heiress.
Her father, Vadim, worked as a truck driver and her mother owned a small convenience store. In 2007, when Delvey was 16, her family relocated to North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. There, her father became an executive at a transport company until the company became insolvent in 2013. He then opened an HVAC business specializing in efficient energy use. Delvey's mother was a housewife. Delvey attended the Bischöfliche Liebfrauenschule Eschweiler (Episcopal School of Our Lady of Eschweiler), a Catholic grammar school in Eschweiler. Peers said she was quiet and struggled with the German language. As a young adult, Delvey obsessively followed Vogue, fashion blogs, and image accounts on LiveJournal and Flickr.
After graduating from the school in June 2011, Delvey moved to London to attend Central Saint Martins, an art school, but soon dropped out and returned to Germany. In 2012, she briefly interned at a public relations company in Berlin. Delvey then relocated to Paris, where she earned around €400 per month at an internship for Purple, a French fashion magazine. Delvey did not contact her parents often, but they subsidized her rent. Around that time, she adopted the "Delvey" surname, which she said was based on her mother's maiden name. Delvey's parents, however, said they do not recognize the surname.
Despite repeated promises from Delvey, and one excuse after another, Williams was repaid only $5,000 and had to borrow money from friends to pay her rent. American Express later removed approximately $52,000 of the charges on her credit cards. After contacting other acquaintances who also lent money to Delvey and were not repaid, and who all had heard different backstories on Delvey's parents' alleged wealth, Williams realized that Delvey was committing fraud.
Delvey had a boyfriend in New York for two years until he moved to the United Arab Emirates. While keeping his identity secret, she disclosed that he gave TED talks and was profiled in The New Yorker. She suggested she would reveal his identity for a fee, with bidding starting at $10,000, but Rachel Williams revealed the boyfriend to be Hunter Lee Soik.
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Net Worth
Anna Delvey's net worth is essentially based on her fraudulent activities, which included scamming friends, hotels, and banks out of approximately $275,000. Her actual personal wealth is not significant, as she was convicted and served time for her crimes.
DJ Elle Dee described a strange encounter with Delvey at a party in May 2014 in Montauk, New York, where Delvey pretended to be a wealthy heiress and bragged about the brands of clothes she was wearing, but also asked partygoers for a place to sleep. After they declined, she slept in a car. Dee also described the other attendees at a party she attended that Delvey organized at The Standard, High Line: "She barely knew them—as if it was maybe the second time they'd ever met, kind of like us. Everyone just sat around, quietly staring at their own phones." Dee called Delvey "entitled and mean", particularly to people in the service industry. She castigated people who did not have many followers on Instagram and bragged that she was going to rent a $12,000-per-month six-bedroom rooftop apartment. Dee also said that Delvey relied on her and other acquaintances to pay her expenses, claiming she had forgotten her wallet or that it was an emergency and her credit cards did not work, shedding crocodile tears that dried up quickly when she realized the scheme would not work.
In 2015, Delvey met the art collector and University of Pennsylvania student Michael Xufu Huang at a dinner party. Learning that Huang planned to attend the Venice Biennale, Delvey asked whether she could accompany him. Huang agreed and booked a flight and hotel room for Delvey on the understanding that he would be reimbursed for the $2,000–$3,000 cost. On their return to New York, Delvey appeared to "forget" the arrangement and failed to pay. Huang initially assumed that Delvey was simply absent-minded. Also in 2015, Delvey attended Art Basel in Miami Beach. She hired a public relations firm to book a birthday party for herself at Sadelle's restaurant in January 2016; after her credit card was declined and pictures of Huang at the event were posted on social media, restaurant staff asked Huang for Delvey's contact details. At this time Huang became suspicious of Delvey and noticed that she always paid with cash and lived in a hotel, not an apartment. He was eventually repaid from a Venmo account with an unfamiliar name. He then blocked Delvey's access to him on social media, ending their friendship.
Delvey used Microsoft Word to create fake bank statements and other financial documents purporting to show that she had €60 million in Swiss bank accounts but could not access them since they were in trust and she was in the U.S. One of her acquaintances put her in touch with lawyer Andrew Lance at Gibson Dunn, who in turn put her in touch with several large financial institutions, including City National Bank and Fortress Investment Group. In November 2016, Delvey submitted false documents as part of a loan application for $22 million to City National. City National refused to extend credit when Delvey failed to provide the source of the Swiss assets, and she then applied for a loan from Fortress. Fortress agreed to consider the application if Delvey paid $100,000 to cover legal expenses relating to the application. In December 2016, with Delvey unable to pay rent, the Church Missions House was leased to Fotografiska New York.
After management discovered that there was no credit card on file for Delvey, they insisted that she settle her $30,000 bill. Delvey had a case of 1975 Dom Pérignon champagne delivered to the staff in an attempt to keep them on her side; hotel policy prevented the staff from accepting it. By March 2017, Delvey had run out of money. She would offer to take friends out for drinks and dinner but when it was time to pay the bill, she would claim that she had forgotten her credit cards or that her credit cards would not work. By this time, Delvey was very active in the New York social scene; she attended dinner parties where she met Macaulay Culkin and Martin Shkreli.
In April 2017, Delvey deposited $160,000 worth of fraudulent checks into a Citibank account, from which she was able to withdraw $70,000. She then wired $30,000 to 11 Howard to pay the outstanding bill.
In May 2017, by sending a forged wire transfer confirmation from Deutsche Bank for the $35,390 fee, Delvey booked a return charter flight on a business jet via Blade Air Mobility to Omaha, Nebraska, to attend the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway with the goal of meeting Warren Buffett. Delvey had allegedly met Blade CEO Robert S. Wiesenthal, but Wiesenthal later said he did not know her at all. Blade reported her to the police in August 2017 after repeated failure to pay. Delvey later claimed that during the trip she snuck into a private party at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, where she met Bill Gates.
After a few days, staff said that they were unable to charge Delvey's credit cards and demanded an alternative form of payment. Delvey gave excuses, blaming the staff for typing in the numbers wrong, or their systems for being down. The lack of a valid credit card on file led to a hotel staff member being fired. Delvey convinced Williams to pay the $62,000 bill, which was more than a year of net salary for Williams, using her work and personal credit cards, with a promise to reimburse her via wire transfer. Williams had also paid for the flights to Morocco, items Delvey purchased, and a private tour of Majorelle Garden using her credit cards, with promises by Delvey to be reimbursed.
In Morocco, Delvey also stayed at Kasbah Tamadot, a Virgin Limited Edition luxury hotel, and at the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in Casablanca, where she asked Duke, who had already returned to New York due to a food-borne illness, to pay for the room. When Duke also offered to pay for a flight back to New York for Delvey, she asked for first-class travel. Delvey drank fine wines and the most expensive champagnes and took a helicopter to the airport in Casablanca.
Returning to New York later in May, Delvey relocated to the Beekman Hotel. Twenty days later, in June 2017, having accumulated a bill of $11,518 and failing to pay despite repeated promises, she was evicted. She then attempted a similar scam at the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, failing to pay her $503.76 bill; she was evicted after two days and charged with theft of services. By July 5, Delvey was homeless. She then interrupted Duke in the middle of a date, crying and pressuring her into providing lodging. She also asked Williams for lodging, again in a crying tantrum; Williams refused. Delvey also tried to dine and dash at the restaurant at the Le Parker Meridien hotel. When caught, she claimed to police that she could get a friend to pay the bill in five minutes. At this time, the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating her for bank fraud.
In an interview before her sentencing, Delvey said, "I'd be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything." On May 9, 2019, she was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of $199,000, including $100,000 to City National, $70,000 to Citibank, and approximately two-thirds of the amount owed to Blade. These amounts, as well as approximately $75,000 in legal fees related to the trial, were paid from proceeds of Delvey's $320,000 deal with Netflix; the court allowed Delvey to keep the remaining $22,000. Delvey was not forced to pay the $160,000 in legal fees owed to Perkins Coie related to the unsuccessful lease of Church Missions House, $65,000 in legal fees due to Gibson Dunn related to the unsuccessful $22 million loan application, or $30,000 in legal fees due to Lowenstein Sandler.
As of December 2022, Delvey had sold $340,000 worth of art. The proceeds were used to post bail and pay three months of rent for Delvey's $4,250/month one-bedroom East Village apartment.
Social Network
Anna Delvey's social network comprised high-society individuals and business leaders whom she manipulated to fund her lifestyle. She was known for her ability to charm and deceive, often using her charm to gain access to upscale events and venues.
Delvey's story gained publicity when Williams wrote a lengthy article in Vanity Fair about her experiences with Delvey in 2018. She expanded on the story in her book My Friend Anna (2019). The same year, journalist Jessica Pressler wrote an article for New York about Delvey's life as a socialite; Netflix paid Delvey $320,000 for the rights to her story and developed it into the miniseries Inventing Anna (2022). Delvey's life story has been the subject of multiple other television shows, interviews, podcasts, and theater productions.
At trial, Delvey's lawyer defended her by saying that her intent all along was to repay her debts and that she received services in exchange for publicity on Instagram. He described her as an entrepreneur, comparing her to Frank Sinatra, claiming they both created a "golden opportunity" in New York.
In October 2022, Delvey was granted a $10,000 bail bond and released from jail. She was required to remain in 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring and no access to social media. Her house arrest was being served at a 470 ft2 apartment in the East Village, Manhattan.
In 2018, after Jessica Pressler published an article on Delvey in New York, Netflix paid Delvey $320,000 for the rights to her life story. But the New York Attorney General's office sued Delvey in 2019 using the state's Son of Sam law, which prohibits those convicted of a crime from profiting from its publicity, and forced the majority of these funds to be used for restitution and fines per the judgment.
In July 2019, My Friend Anna, a book by Rachel DeLoache Williams, was published by Gallery Publishing Group, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, as well as by Quercus in the UK and Goldmann in Germany. Williams received $300,000 for the book, in which she details her experiences with Delvey, including how the trip to Marrakesh affected her financially and mentally. Screenwriter Lena Dunham paid Williams $35,000 for an option to the television rights to her story but did not exercise it, so the story rights returned to Williams.
Delvey's story has been the subject of an episode of American Greed by CNBC, an episode of Generation Hustle by HBO Max, an episode of 20/20, in which Deborah Roberts interviewed Delvey in ICE custody, and an episode of 60 Minutes, in which Liam Bartlett interviewed her.
In December 2019, Delvey's story was the subject of Fake Heiress, a drama-documentary podcast by journalist Vicky Baker and playwright Chloe Moss released by BBC Radio 4, starring Bella Dayne as Delvey. In the 2020 American television series Katy Keene, the character of Pepper Smith, played by Julia Chan, is loosely based on Delvey.
In late July and early August 2021, Anna X, a stage play inspired by Delvey's story by Joseph Charlton starring Emma Corrin and Nabhaan Rizwan ran at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London and The Lowry in Salford.
Delvey maintains social media accounts, which she has described as satire, on Twitter and Instagram. Through Instagram, she connected with Julia Fox, with whom, as of February 2022, she was planning a collaboration. In January 2021, Delvey penned a sarcastic letter to Donald Trump in which she anticipated her becoming a prisoner at Rikers Island. As a condition of her October 2022 release from ICE detention she was prohibited access to social media. This restriction was lifted in August 2024.
Education
Anna Delvey began pursuing a fashion degree in Paris but did not complete it. She also dropped out of college in London before moving to New York City. Her primary focus was on integrating into the fashion and social elite, rather than formal education.
Anna Sorokin (, ; born January 23, 1991), also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress to access upper-class New York social and art scenes from 2013 to 2017.
Between 2013 and 2017, Delvey defrauded and deceived major financial institutions, banks, hotels, and individuals. In 2017, the NYPD arrested Delvey in a sting operation with the help of her former friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, who accused Delvey of defrauding her of US$62,000. In 2019, a New York state court convicted Delvey of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services, and she was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. After serving two years, she was released on parole. Six weeks later she was taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to Germany. In October 2022, after 19 months of detention, Delvey was granted a $10,000 bail bond and released to house arrest.
To convince Delvey to enter a more public venue where an arrest would be more easily effected, McCaffrey had Williams arrange a lunch meeting at a restaurant outside the facility. When Delvey left the facility, Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested her. Later that month, a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. indicted Delvey on two counts of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, three counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of grand larceny in the third degree, and one count of misdemeanor theft of services for the fraudulent loan applications made to City National and Fortress, the check fraud, the cost of the trip to Morocco, and the unpaid hotel and restaurant bills.
On April 25, 2019, after deliberating for two days, the jury found Delvey guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. Delvey was found not guilty of two other charges: one of attempted grand larceny in the first degree relating to the original loan application with City National, and one of larceny in the second degree relating to the alleged theft of $62,000 from Rachel Williams in Marrakesh.
In January 2022, Delvey tested positive for COVID-19 in jail and was placed in quarantine. While still in jail on March 1, 2022, she joined a class-action suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Delvey alleged that ICE refused multiple requests for a COVID-19 vaccine booster. She had received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine the previous April.
