Critic
The Secret to Phony Heiress Anna Delvey’s Con Was Simpler Than It Seemed
A new book, My Friend Anna, hints that there was a core method to the Soho Grifter’s elaborate socialite fakery.
Photo Illustration: 731; Image: Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com
In May, a 28-year-old named Anna Sorokin, who went by the name Anna Delvey, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for grand larceny and theft of services. She’d persuaded City National Bank to give her a $100,000 loan, skipped out on tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of hotel bills, and chartered a private jet for $35,000 to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual shareholder meeting. She didn’t pay that back either.
Delvey did all of this, she claimed, in an effort to open a social club/art space, which she planned to call the Anna Delvey Foundation.