The confidante of a woman who stole $275,000 for lavish dinners, hotel suites and celebrity trainers has revealed how she tricked people into believing she was an heiress.
Speaking to The Cut, Neffatari Davis, a 25-year-old concierge at 11 Howard hotel in New York’s Soho neighborhood, revealed that she first met Anna Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, when she arrived at the concierge desk looking for ‘the best food in Soho.’
Others including her personal trainer shared that they believed Delvey, now 27, was actually the daughter of a Russian diplomat or the heiress to an antiques business in Germany.
Con artist: Neffatari Davis (left), the confidante of con artist Anna Delvey (right) has revealed how she was able to trick people into believing she was a German heiress
Friends: Davis, a 25-year-old concierge at 11 Howard hotel in New York’s Soho neighborhood, first met Anna Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, when the con-artist was staying there
Roots: Delvey was born in Russia in 1991 but moved to Germany with her family in 2007 before attending Central Saint Martins fashion college in London
However, Anna Sorokin was born in Russia in 1991 and moved to Germany in 2007 when she was 16 with her younger brother and parents.
Her father had worked as a truck driver and later as an executive at a transport company until it became insolvent in 2013, whereupon he opened a heating-and-cooling business specializing in energy-efficient devices.
After moving to London to attend Central Saint Martins fashion school, Anna returned to Berlin and interned in the fashion department of a public relations firm before relocating to Paris where she secured a coveted internshio at Purple magazine.
It was at this time that she changed her name from Sorokin to Delvey.
Staying in the hotel’s $400 a night Howard Deluxe room, Delfey would frequently pay Davis a visit and they pair would talk about restaurants even though she quickly realized that the guest did not need recommendations.
And while Delvey could be rude and demanding, she was a big tipper and frequently passed Davis $100 bill tips for restaurant recommendations.
People would fight to take her packages upstairs,’ she added. ‘Fight, because you knew you were getting $100.’
A long-term guest, Delvey became so at home at the hotel, she started walking around the hotel in a robe.
‘She ran that place,’ said Davis. ‘You know how Rihanna walks out with wineglasses? That was Anna.’
And her generosity seemed to extend outside of the hotel also, as Davis shared that she used to tip Uber drivers $100 and also spent her time shopping, getting beauty treatments and working out with a celebrity trainer who cost $4,5000 for a package of sessions.
She also hosted large dinner parties attended by CEOs, artists, athletes and celebrities and invited Davis along.
Delvey also shared her grandiose plan of opening a six-story arts club in Gramercy Park called the Anna Delvey Foundation, which was to be filled with pop-up shops, art installations, three restaurants, a juice bar and a German bakery.
New identiry: After landing an impressive internship at Purple magazine in Paris, she changed her name to Anna Delvey and modeled herself as a European heiress
Double life: Delvey stayed at the 11 Howard hotel in New York’s Soho (pictured) for weeks at a time and managed to infiltrate the New York social scene seamlessly
Plans: Anna (pictured far right with Giudo Cacciatori, Gro Curtis and Giorgia Tordini, at The Jane Hotel in New York) also told people she was launching an ‘arts club’ in Gramercy Park
Big tipper: Although Anna frequently asked friends to cover expenses and even arranged a trip to Austria (pictured) with art collector Michael Xufu Huang but asked him to pay for it all
While Anna’s lineage was a mystery to her acquaintances, her ability to infiltrate the New York social scene seemed to happen seamlessly and she made sure she was at the important parties and hip bars and clubs in every city she visited.
She also hired a PR firm to organize her birthday party at one of her favorite restaurants, Sadelle’s in Soho, however she never paid the bill.
Chinese art collector Michael Xufu Huang who had previously agreed to go to the Venice Biennale with Delvey and pay for flights and accommodation on his credit cards said he didn’t suspect anything was amiss until a restaurant called him to ask if he had Delvey’s contact details because she’d skipped out on a bill for a big birthday bash.
And Davis also recounted an instance when she and Delvey went for dinner at Sant Ambroeus in Soho, and Davis was forced to pay a bill of $286 after Delvey’s 12 credit cards were declined.
‘The waiter went back to his station and began entering the numbers. There were like 12, and I know the guy tried them all,’ she said. ‘He was trying it and then shaking his head. And then I started to sweat, because I knew the bill was mine.’
However the next day Anna paid her back triple the amount in cash.
Not long after this happened, Davis was contacted by her manager at 11 Howard who informed her that they didn’t have a credit card on file for Delvey’s long hotel stay, amounting to $30,000.
When the hotel pressed her for payment, she told them a wire transfer was on the way and then proceeded to order a case of 1975 Dom Perignon for the hotel staff.
And while Citibank did in fact send the wire transfer for the full amount, a lack of working credit card as security meant the hotel were forced to lock Delvey out of her room while she was on a trip to Omaha to try and meet billionaire Warren Buffet to ask him for funding for the arts club she had told everyone she wanted to set up.
Birthday girl: Delvey posted this shot to Instagram after hiring a PR company to organize a glamorous birthday dinner at Sadelle’s in New York – she never paid the bill
Fully booked: Delvey was eventually kicked out of 11 Howard so moved to The Beekman Hotel where she racked up a bill for over $11,000 before getting locked out of her room
Times up: In October 2017, Anna was arraigned on charges including grand larceny and theft of services relating to her unpaid hotel bills and wire fraud
Consequences: And in January 2018, she rejected a plea deal and now faces multiple grand larceny charges and 15 years behind bars if convicted
Shortly after, Delvey invited Davis on an all expense paid trip to Morocco however she was unable to get time of work so had to pass on the trip, even though Delvey had told her to ‘just quit’.
And when she was eventually kicked out of 11 Howard, Delvey checking into The Beekman Hotel where she racked up a bill for $11,518.59 before being locked out of her hotel room.
A subsequent two-day $500 stay at the W Hotel ended with her wandering the streets with nowhere to stay.
In October 2017, she was arraigned on charges including grand larceny and theft of services.
She allegedly defrauded banks, skipped out on thousands of dollars of hotel bills and tricked a friend into paying for their $62,000 lavish trip to Morocco Manhattan prosecutors said that her cons included claiming to be a wealthy German heiress during a quest to get a $22million loan to fund her private arts club and managing to keep $55,000 — which she then spent on personal trainers and hotel stays — from overdrafting an account at City National Bank.
Prosecutors said that Sorokin also deposited $160,000 in phony check at Citibank, siphoning off $70,000 into another account before the deposits could be reversed.
In addition to bank fraud, Sorokin also left many hotel bills unpaid.
And in January 2018, she rejected a plea deal and now faces multiple grand larceny charges.
She faces up to 15 years behind bars if convicted.