Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Zaren Yo Elizabeth Zavin Nothing Much. How are you?
Speaker 3: I got a question for you. Yeah, you got one
Speaker 3: for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 2: What's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Oh? Thank goodness because I have an answer for that.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 3: So there was this guy named mister Huan from the
Speaker 3: city of jiangshah and the Hunan province in China, and
Speaker 3: he had a bad day. He got into an accident
Speaker 3: right and then he was taken to the hospital. And
Speaker 3: then the news went out and people saw that he
Speaker 3: was in the hospital, and people who loved and cared
Speaker 3: for him came rushing to be by his bedside. And
Speaker 3: first his girlfriend showed up, and then his girlfriend showed up,
Speaker 3: and then his girlfriend showed up, and then his girlfriend
Speaker 3: showed up. Seventeen women showed up this man's girlfriend, seventeen seventeen,
Speaker 3: and they all got to meet each other at his
Speaker 3: hospital bedside. He's got like the tubes in his mouth.
Speaker 3: I don't know what he was doing seventeen And then
Speaker 3: the women, they were a little upset because he turns
Speaker 3: out that some of the girlfriends he'd been giving them
Speaker 3: money every month. That's what the South China Morning Post reported.
Speaker 3: They also reported that after the accident, some of the
Speaker 3: women set up an online check group called Quote Revenge Alliance.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, you know, I don't know what they had
Speaker 3: planned for mister Juan, but one of them, shoo Lee.
Speaker 3: She said, I was really worried when I heard that
Speaker 3: he was in the hospital. And then, you know, she'd
Speaker 3: been dating him for eighteen months at this point. But
Speaker 3: then when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls
Speaker 3: show up, I couldn't cry anymore. So her tears on
Speaker 3: her face, yeah, dried up. And then she turned to
Speaker 3: raise Quiet Quiet Range. She's like, tell me more about
Speaker 3: this revenge Alliance. Ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Right, that is ridiculous. Do you want to know what
Speaker 2: else is ridiculous? Oh my god, I'd love to Old
Speaker 2: CON's being new again recycling This is Ridiculous Crime a
Speaker 2: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's
Speaker 2: always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: You damn right.
Speaker 2: That's right. We've talked about a particular con that's been
Speaker 2: pulled innumerable times, pretending to be a rich person who's
Speaker 2: just momentarily down on their luck, and about to come
Speaker 2: into a huge.
Speaker 3: Inheritance, totally very popular con that.
Speaker 2: Story, like the refrain from that and Sexton poem Cinderella.
Speaker 3: That story just like that, just like that.
Speaker 2: Well, this was in my head anyway.
Speaker 3: I get it. I know how your head works.
Speaker 2: Story. We've talked about having some sort of continental accent
Speaker 2: and how it makes it easier to pull one over
Speaker 2: on Americans totally, and we've talked about how some Americans
Speaker 2: like to have some sense of adjacency to mysterious wealthy
Speaker 2: Europeans could never yes, well, because we don't really know
Speaker 2: a whole lot about European history and nobility and wealth.
Speaker 2: It's just like this mysterious mist of intrigue in gold Leaf.
Speaker 3: Totally you're like, oh, I'm the baroness of such and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're like, that's amazing. Some people are just
Speaker 2: that's super appealing. And I think we've talked about how
Speaker 2: some of the cons discussed here were far easier to
Speaker 2: pull off in the analog era as opposed to now,
Speaker 2: so like digital footprints, instant verification and just Google make
Speaker 2: pulling the wool a lot harder, yes, exactly, but that's
Speaker 2: not true for everyone. Sarin Elizabeth there are still superstars
Speaker 2: of scanning, the demigods who can't be held back two
Speaker 2: factor verification be damned. The Alzheimers, the ones who just
Speaker 2: have that ja that allows them to get away with
Speaker 2: incredible lives. Scene.
Speaker 3: I love that. I don't know what right.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So a lot of times when I'm reading about these
Speaker 2: cons I try to imagine myself in that situation, pulling
Speaker 2: it off.
Speaker 3: It off, yeah, and I just can't not having it
Speaker 3: being pulled off against you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't have that quality, Like, I don't enter
Speaker 2: a room with that confidence and convincing manner. You don't
Speaker 2: think so No, I know, so okay, I think you
Speaker 2: could do it.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 3: I do have a bit of overconfidence, but only because
Speaker 3: I don't really care, Like I'm not worried about Like
Speaker 3: I not that I'm like, oh I'm so fearless, but
Speaker 3: I really I hear people say things I'm like, I've
Speaker 3: never thought. Yeah, I am just like, oh, I question this,
Speaker 3: I question that I imagine I'm seeing me this way.
Speaker 3: I'm like, that's a dog work. I'm not doing.
Speaker 2: Thirty one flavors of worry.
Speaker 3: Worry. Yeah, I just sorted not to be offensive. I
Speaker 3: try not to hurt people's feelings. I'm at the other end.
Speaker 2: But you have the you could convince people if you
Speaker 2: wanted to, and you're very confidence.
Speaker 3: Also, I was right by con artists, so I do
Speaker 3: know that.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh yeah, I have someone else for
Speaker 2: you today who has that confidence, who has that convincing manner,
Speaker 2: someone who should be in our con artist hall of fame?
Speaker 4: Oh fame?
Speaker 3: Who is Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: Thank you Elizabeth. She pulled the kind of scams that
Speaker 2: people were doing in the eighteen hundreds when documentation and
Speaker 2: communication were limited. Today, she's also amazingly lazy at crafting
Speaker 2: a backstory like I already love it so good. We
Speaker 2: usually see oh yeah, we usually see con artists who
Speaker 2: pull the old I'm coming into some money saying like
Speaker 2: they referenced an exotic or obscure or like super wealthy
Speaker 2: sounding relative who will be a benefactor.
Speaker 3: Maybe they have a letter with a big seal.
Speaker 2: Right, this girl just kept it breezy and Liz generalizations
Speaker 2: like she's your own adventure when it came to her
Speaker 2: origin story. So today I want to tell you about
Speaker 2: a woman known as the Soho Grifter. So much sound
Speaker 2: is grizzly. It does like it sounds like, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: it's not. She was a society darling, kind of a
Speaker 2: society darling that no one knew was a darling. Oh
Speaker 2: the darling people didn't really know, but were willing to
Speaker 2: spot some cash.
Speaker 3: Ah Ron Darling's daughter, Anna Sorokan do not know that one.
Speaker 2: She was born in Russia near Moscow in nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 2: So that's the year the Soviet Union formally collapsed. Totally
Speaker 2: a time to be there, totally come on now, yeah,
Speaker 2: newborn baby, you're a baby. You're a tiny little baby born,
Speaker 2: so tender and mild. So we hear accounts of what
Speaker 2: it was like following the collapse in all like the
Speaker 2: various former republics, black market trade, implosion of the currency struggle.
Speaker 3: Unrest, all the factories being seized by the wealthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm not really particularly familiar with what day
Speaker 2: to day like was in Russia. Then there's like, you know,
Speaker 2: they have the huge economic collapse subsequent rise of the
Speaker 2: Russian oligar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of crime, but like for someone.
Speaker 2: Like Anna's family, Anna's family, Anna, I don't know what
Speaker 2: the day to day was like. But either way, they skidaddled,
Speaker 2: they got out headed to Germany. In two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: when she was sixteen years old, her family moved to
Speaker 2: this little town by Cologne, working class place. Her dad
Speaker 2: got a gig as a truck driver, and then he
Speaker 2: worked his way up to being an executive in the business,
Speaker 2: and then he opened an HVAC business that specialized in
Speaker 2: energy efficient products, which like there's always money in.
Speaker 3: That Italian totally.
Speaker 2: So Anna was a normal high school student, quiet, unassuming.
Speaker 3: You weren't talking about her grades, you mean just in general,
Speaker 3: in general.
Speaker 2: Really having a tough time learning German, Okay, like it
Speaker 2: was not coming easy to her. That would be me,
Speaker 2: like I'm not smart enough to learn German.
Speaker 3: It's the only language. He's doing school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like immersion. And she's like, it's lazy.
Speaker 3: Russion at home.
Speaker 2: I love it. So she gets out of high school,
Speaker 2: she makes a big move to London and enrolls in
Speaker 2: Central Saint Martin's College. Their parents were footing the bill,
Speaker 2: which like it wasn't a lavish lifestyle, like she didn't
Speaker 2: have to paying off for the day h VAC was
Speaker 2: paying off. But it wasn't luxury. It was just like
Speaker 2: you don't have to.
Speaker 3: Her rent taken care of you, focus on school.
Speaker 2: Well, she didn't last long in college. She dropped out.
Speaker 2: She went back to Germany. She's like, I think I
Speaker 2: got the hang of the language. She got an internship
Speaker 2: at a PR firm in Berlin, all right, and from there,
Speaker 2: that's around twenty thirteen or so, she moved to Paris
Speaker 2: and she got an internship there at Purple quote a
Speaker 2: European sceinister magazine. Oh no, not the mattress company, Yes,
Speaker 2: of course, a European seinster magazine. Like just cover that
Speaker 2: new job, new Anna, right, So she decided to rebrand
Speaker 2: herself as Anna Delvy.
Speaker 3: Delv Oh wait a minute, that just took me a second. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh yeah, so like I can so
Speaker 2: see and feel this era of euro hipsterism fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Stuff. So while she's at Purple, she connected with Olivierson
Speaker 2: and Andrea Seravia. And Olivierson is not to be confused
Speaker 2: with olivers On, the astrophysicist and data scientists.
Speaker 3: Or stevens On the actor.
Speaker 2: No, see the olivers On. That's the confusion that I
Speaker 2: had when I went to look him up. I was
Speaker 2: like she's chilling with this astrophysicist.
Speaker 3: Doesn't make sense at all.
Speaker 2: Olivier. Olivier and Andrea are euro hipsters and like social
Speaker 2: big dogs in the middle New York to Paris to
Speaker 2: London and backpipeline.
Speaker 3: Pipeline.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Andrea Seravia is the graffiti artist known as Monsieur Andre.
Speaker 2: Oh really and which you know does our hair and makeup?
Speaker 3: Or John he's never talked about it or just Andre.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's known for mister A. That's a tag that's sort
Speaker 2: of a stick figure with a top hat that he
Speaker 2: painted across six continents. Sorry Antarctica, let me show you.
Speaker 3: Is sounding familiar? The stick figure with the.
Speaker 2: Are going to as soon as you see it, as
Speaker 2: I find like, because I have problems with this laptop three.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, we'll put that up on Instagram. But
Speaker 2: if you're curious and you don't do if you're not
Speaker 2: on the Instagra, it's iconic. Yeah, just look up mister
Speaker 2: A graffiti and it'll all come together now. So uh.
Speaker 2: He his work has been in museums. It was in
Speaker 2: that movie Exit through the Gift Shop. Really, he's he's
Speaker 2: like that kind of graffiti.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like mister brainwashed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he also owns restaurants. He owns a nightclub.
Speaker 3: Called Le Baron, of course he does.
Speaker 2: And he owns a hotel, Hotel Amore.
Speaker 3: Of Hotel Love. Yeah, this guy is great. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: know they all sound better in French, but that's why
Speaker 3: I'm translating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he I own Hotel Love like great. He designed
Speaker 2: a lot of luxury goods for the likes of Louis Vutant,
Speaker 2: Apple Chanels, Yeah, Tiffany, Nike, off White, Converse, and to.
Speaker 3: Give you a cent and work with Supreme.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know that's missing on there. I want
Speaker 2: to give you a sense of who he really is.
Speaker 2: In twenty fifteen, he got busted for vandalizing a boulder
Speaker 2: in Joshua Tree National Park here in California with his graffiti.
Speaker 2: He posted photos of it all on Instagram, and like
Speaker 2: the nature set was pissed, so the website Modern Hiker,
Speaker 2: and like the legion of readers, they rose up and
Speaker 2: worked with the National Park Service to track him down.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, like fill up your Nalgene bottles, tires up
Speaker 2: on the subis in twenty like, we're out to catch
Speaker 2: the defiler. So he was eventually convicted of it. But
Speaker 2: before that he tried to sue the reporters out of
Speaker 2: making a public I'm sorry, dude, it doesn't work though,
Speaker 2: He's like, I'll sue you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Anna, she's hanging out with these types, right, and
Speaker 2: through them, she was able to hang out with the
Speaker 2: people that they were hanging out with. The whole cnbccen
Speaker 2: sins is on. Oh completely. So she's flitting around the
Speaker 2: European social scene becoming presence, and then she found herself
Speaker 2: in New York. The Hampton's very wealthy people. She was there,
Speaker 2: That's what I've heard. She was there ostensibly for fashion week,
Speaker 2: but then she figured she just stayed because it.
Speaker 3: Felt right New York. I guess New York.
Speaker 2: I hope New York Hampton collection, which like hello, it's
Speaker 2: like all the new dance.
Speaker 3: Go all the best dance shoes, garden shoes.
Speaker 2: So okay. So she goes there, she's in the Hampton.
Speaker 2: She loves it. Purple had offices in New York City, naturally,
Speaker 2: and it was of course, and I mean, if you
Speaker 2: want to stay in that job, it's doable, but she didn't,
Speaker 2: so it wasn't. So there's this guy Tommy Sleet. He
Speaker 2: was in that scene and he still has that like
Speaker 2: jet setting install account to support it. Okay, he told
Speaker 2: me this day, this day, you open it up. There
Speaker 2: used to be that photo thing called we heart It.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever hear that. It's like
Speaker 2: supposed to be like soci media where you'd share photos,
Speaker 2: but like you couldn't leave comments. It was very strange.
Speaker 3: It was like.
Speaker 2: It was like, I'll add that to my collection. Everything
Speaker 2: is very like aesthetic mood board when when it became aesthetic,
Speaker 2: became a descriptor of something rather than ann set anyway,
Speaker 2: So this dude, Tommy, he tells New York Magazines the
Speaker 2: cut quote. She was at all the best parties, one
Speaker 2: of the two hundred or so people you see everywhere.
Speaker 2: She introduced herself. She's a sweet girl, very polite. Then
Speaker 2: we're just hanging out with my friends. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: so this becomes a theme, like the fabulous set see
Speaker 2: her at all their fabulous events and gathering and pretty
Speaker 2: soon she's just a fixture. She's like the lint on
Speaker 2: the back of like some black knit trousers doing a
Speaker 2: ride along. Its like you don't really realize she's there.
Speaker 2: Then maybe you make an attempt to brush the lint
Speaker 2: away with your hand when you see it out of
Speaker 2: but you're busy doing other things.
Speaker 3: You're rich and wealthy, Actually what do you care?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she's everywhere someone hip and cool and rich
Speaker 2: would be, and she looks and acts the part so
Speaker 2: like that part was and she got the accent, Zaren,
Speaker 2: What was her story?
Speaker 3: Well was her story, Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: Thank you for asking. Elizabeth. She told people she was
Speaker 2: a German.
Speaker 3: Heiress, a German, right, because you've got that fake now.
Speaker 2: Her German was pretty bad though, like she still hadn't
Speaker 2: never got a hold of the line, never never got
Speaker 2: a grasp on it. So it's like I go around
Speaker 2: telling people I'm a French heiress, they'd be like start
Speaker 2: talking about like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm still practicing my English.
Speaker 2: Let's keep it in that so anyway, who's to judge?
Speaker 2: Is what I'm trying to say. Honestly, in that social
Speaker 2: circle there are people with sort of mysterious backgrounds and
Speaker 2: hazy sources of wealth.
Speaker 3: Definitely, or they don't want to talk about because they
Speaker 3: are so wealthy, and that's what they act like. They're like, Oh,
Speaker 3: if you knew, you'd take advantage of me.
Speaker 2: A dear friend of mine was in that sort of
Speaker 2: like trust fund, fabulously wealthy and hip global travelers world
Speaker 2: for a little while. So I heard a lot of
Speaker 2: stories and I witnessed some of it for myself and sister.
Speaker 3: It's a weird world, Oh, I believe you.
Speaker 2: They're like random quote Europeans all over it, always people
Speaker 2: with vague titles, and the states and foreign lands. No
Speaker 2: one is a day job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from here to do Bay. This is true.
Speaker 2: It is weird and it is fascinating. So at this time,
Speaker 2: like so we're talking like twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: she becomes a fixture in the New York social scene.
Speaker 2: One of the super rich folks that she was hanging
Speaker 2: out with was Michael Jufu Huang, a filthy rich socialite
Speaker 2: art collector. That's a great day joby.
Speaker 3: I was just about to say, how do you get
Speaker 3: that day jobect art?
Speaker 2: I collect art? So he noticed that it parties like
Speaker 2: she knew pretty much everyone, but no one really knew her.
Speaker 2: And it was more that like she knew who they were,
Speaker 2: and that was odd enough, but there was more like
Speaker 2: he noticed that she lived at a hotel, and she
Speaker 2: never used credit cards. So like when she would take
Speaker 2: people out to dinner, she'd treat she'd just like pull
Speaker 2: out a giant water cash and peel off bills to
Speaker 2: pay for.
Speaker 3: Things like she just won the lottery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like an old West Bank robber.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, let me reach into my satchela cat.
Speaker 2: Actually, So one day Michael he mentioned to that he
Speaker 2: was heading out to Venice, Italy for the twenty fifteen bill.
Speaker 3: Of course, I guess they go to Venice.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know what the b in LA is like,
Speaker 2: it's a international cultural exhibition held every year in Venice. Well,
Speaker 2: there are two main components, right, so there's the art
Speaker 2: b in LA and then there's the architecture b in
Speaker 2: LA and they are held alternating. Right there you go,
Speaker 2: b by Okay, So then there are four other parts.
Speaker 2: There's the music, theater, the Venice Film Festival, the dance
Speaker 2: and it's this cool and wealthy place to see and
Speaker 2: be seen, Like you know you're going to pull up
Speaker 2: in like those glossy teak boats, scarves moisturized.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, I got you.
Speaker 2: So that's where Michael was going, and that's where Anna
Speaker 2: wanted to go, so I bet she did. She told
Speaker 2: him like, oh, you know what I'm going too, but
Speaker 2: I just need some help with logistics.
Speaker 3: So she I'm studying her ways totally.
Speaker 2: She talked him into hooking her up with hotel reservations
Speaker 2: and flights to and from hooking up with lights to Yeah,
Speaker 2: She's like, oh, i'll get you back, no problem, I
Speaker 2: just need you to put it together for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've got my statuel and then yeah.
Speaker 2: She'd pull off the old bag of cash and he
Speaker 2: thought that was fine. He's like whatever, that's just how
Speaker 2: it works with these people, right, So you know, they
Speaker 2: jet around and they stayed each other's grand estates villas.
Speaker 3: I was just aid Lake Como, and they.
Speaker 2: Take each other these lavish dinners or spas or nights
Speaker 2: out and all like evens out over time, I'm sure,
Speaker 2: you know, like and they know, Okay, you're good for it,
Speaker 2: and you'll repay in cash or in kind at some point, like.
Speaker 3: I'll see you at the next eyes wide shut party totally.
Speaker 2: And some of some of the expenses that you and
Speaker 2: I would gulp at are like basically chump changed.
Speaker 3: Yes that I have seen, Yes, I did see that.
Speaker 3: I was like I could buy a car with that.
Speaker 3: You just signed it and didn't even look.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, and you're like, okay, well that's not a
Speaker 2: big deal for you. So we get to Venice and
Speaker 2: she was his shadow. She went to every event with him,
Speaker 2: but she was never like, oh, come to this with me.
Speaker 2: She didn't seem to be invited to anything. And then
Speaker 2: it became clear that like she just did yeah, she
Speaker 2: didn't have any invitations, and then she ghosted him. When
Speaker 2: they got back radio silence for eighteen months more interesting,
Speaker 2: and one day he gets an invitation to her birthday party.
Speaker 2: Her birthday party, her birthday party.
Speaker 3: She was.
Speaker 2: It was at this like very chic and happening restaurant
Speaker 2: on the Lower East Side, and of course it is.
Speaker 2: He gets to the party, he looks around. He recognizes
Speaker 2: tons of people from like the money world, venture capitalists, financiers,
Speaker 2: real estate moguls, the art collector. These are his people, right,
Speaker 2: So he's mingling and as he's talking to everyone, he
Speaker 2: kind of puts together that no one there really knows her,
Speaker 2: like they weren't friends. They had all been invited to
Speaker 2: the shindig by her pr person, And so he left
Speaker 2: the party. He's like, this is this is all this,
Speaker 2: but Zerina got weirder, weirder. Let's take a break here.
Speaker 2: When we come back, more hanky stuff.
Speaker 4: Yes, hello, Hi, hello, I'm here for the weird.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm here to supply it. So a couple days
Speaker 2: after Anna Delvey's birthday party, Michael Hwang got an Instagram DM.
Speaker 2: It was someone from the restaurant trying to get in
Speaker 2: touch with Anna because she had skipped out on her
Speaker 2: bill the Succulent Chinese Meal us.
Speaker 3: She'd forgotten her cast, and she had.
Speaker 2: Given them a fake phone number and a fake credit
Speaker 2: card number for the deposit. Oh yeah. So Michael's like,
Speaker 2: I can't help you. I had nothing to do with
Speaker 2: the party with her. He later told Artnett that he
Speaker 2: thought to himself, quote, oh, she's definitely not legitimate or
Speaker 2: else she's having financial problems, but you know what, maybe.
Speaker 3: A temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Speaker 2: Either way bad news. So seeing that she wasn't someone
Speaker 2: to be relied upon, he reached out to her and
Speaker 2: was like, hey, remember how I load you all that
Speaker 2: money for the Venice trip. He paid me back and
Speaker 2: she stalled, but she eventually paid him the payment came
Speaker 2: from a venmo account in someone else's name, And as
Speaker 2: soon as that Venmo hit, he blocked her, deleted her
Speaker 2: everywhere he could. He was like done, washed his hands,
Speaker 2: but others weren't. Others weren't done. And she seems totally
Speaker 2: unbothered by this, Like there was a slight buzz where
Speaker 2: people in that social set wondered about the source of
Speaker 2: her funds, like was she the child of a Russian
Speaker 2: oligarch who used to being German as a cover and
Speaker 2: her money's like tied up in sanctioned Sure, did she
Speaker 2: come from a German art collector family with money like
Speaker 2: the type grown from ill gotten gains during the war,
Speaker 2: No one knew, but they loved to speculated.
Speaker 3: And so in the meantime, that's it's like a hobby
Speaker 3: for this.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And then there's Anna like swanning around with
Speaker 2: gobs of cash, like skipping out on tabs, mooching off
Speaker 2: people she convinced were friends.
Speaker 3: But she has to know that there's this whisper campaign,
Speaker 3: right or sense it, And she's.
Speaker 2: Just fla bothered, un bothered.
Speaker 3: I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's well beyond anything. I could take care. But yeah,
Speaker 2: she so she goes beyond being just a fixture at
Speaker 2: events and then starts to actually get to know these folks. Okay,
Speaker 2: like she sunk her claws in successfully, and she had
Speaker 2: to act the part like more than just being mysterious
Speaker 2: and cash heavy, like now she had to have like
Speaker 2: she had to be doing something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she had to like be like I'm doing Damien
Speaker 3: her next exhibit or something funny. You should mention that really.
Speaker 2: So she told people she wanted to open a quote
Speaker 2: dynamic visual arts center dedicated to contemporary.
Speaker 3: Arts, of course, and it's.
Speaker 2: Not just a gallery, it's a cause. She wanted it
Speaker 2: to be called the Ammid Delvy Foundation.
Speaker 3: It's a great place to money.
Speaker 2: Well, except it wasn't really a foundation or a charity. No,
Speaker 2: it was going to be a member's only club like
Speaker 2: Soho House. So it wasn't even like over pretend it's
Speaker 2: a charity. It's just she's going to call a social
Speaker 2: club the foundation. So they would have like restaurants and
Speaker 2: art studios and gallery spaces. Zarin, there was going to
Speaker 2: be a juice bar.
Speaker 3: Of course, you gotta have a juice bar.
Speaker 2: She also said that this like cool girl club that
Speaker 2: she's starting would have pop up shops curated by famous
Speaker 2: artists and exhibitions like you know, from people like Damien Hurst,
Speaker 2: Tracy Emmon, Jeff Coons. Like basically, she looked at the
Speaker 2: Sachi Gallery cab and was like round them up all
Speaker 2: the yeah. Oh and Christo the artist who covers the
Speaker 2: famous for stabbing things and enormous amounts of fabric. He
Speaker 2: was going to wrap the building for the opening party,
Speaker 2: the big stuff and a juice bar.
Speaker 3: Maybe he should wrap the juice box.
Speaker 2: In order to get this rolling, she needed a wealthy
Speaker 2: anchor for the project, so she cozy up to Gabriel Calatrava.
Speaker 2: I don't know this, he came from a really rich
Speaker 2: real estate fan probably, so from Gabriel she was able
Speaker 2: to get to his brother and all of his connections
Speaker 2: because he was like the real big real estate guy.
Speaker 2: And then they all got to work crafting a business
Speaker 2: plan for this thing. Where would it be located? Church
Speaker 2: Missions House in Grammercy Park naturally did how big would
Speaker 2: it be?
Speaker 3: How big would it?
Speaker 2: Belib whopping forty five thousand square feet?
Speaker 3: That's big? Yeah, that sounds that's yeah.
Speaker 2: That's like costco How much would this cost.
Speaker 3: Saren, how much Elizabeth would this cost?
Speaker 2: Thank you Elizabeth somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty to
Speaker 2: forty million dollars. Wow, Anna heard the number, just like shrugs.
Speaker 2: She's like, easy, that's nothing, let's do this like she
Speaker 2: had the money, is what she was saying. So she's
Speaker 2: like going around telling anyone who would listen that when
Speaker 2: she turned twenty five, which would happen soon, would she'd
Speaker 2: be coming into an obsely huge trust fund.
Speaker 3: Of course that story, that story a.
Speaker 2: Tale as old as crime. So pro tip. Never trust
Speaker 2: anyone who says they're about to come into a lot
Speaker 2: of money.
Speaker 3: No, unless somebody who's giving them the money tells you
Speaker 3: that too, and then you can see their banks.
Speaker 2: Even so, if they are, that's their business. Of course,
Speaker 2: I know you're like I AM's Erran. Things don't happen
Speaker 2: until they happen.
Speaker 3: I don't believe in anything till yeah, So you can.
Speaker 2: Talk all you want about something that's expected to go down,
Speaker 2: but it's not real until it is final.
Speaker 3: I believe in probabilities.
Speaker 2: Yes, So no, scammer. I will not loan you millions
Speaker 2: of dollars while you wait for your supposed inherence to
Speaker 2: come through, and even when it does, I won't loan
Speaker 2: you the money because I don't have that kind of money.
Speaker 2: That's how I stay out of trouble, buddy, being broke
Speaker 2: so so much.
Speaker 3: I don't even have thirty to forty million pennies, so
Speaker 3: don't talk to me.
Speaker 2: It's like, much like the trust fund. There was also
Speaker 2: a lease on this place, naturally, and is telling everyone
Speaker 2: that the lease on the location was secured, Okay, that
Speaker 2: the Cali Trava company taking care of it. She's like,
Speaker 2: you know, everything's all in line. You can guess whether
Speaker 2: or not that's true. With the least supposedly secured, she
Speaker 2: needed to get down to brass tacks. Who would be
Speaker 2: the chef for the fabulous restaurants they'd have there, Who
Speaker 2: will supply the exotic ingredients and curate innovative recipes for
Speaker 2: the juice bar? Yes, of course, who would close the
Speaker 2: funding gap? So she said, look, I got twenty five
Speaker 2: million on it, but I need to match that in
Speaker 2: order to make this a reaction.
Speaker 3: Nothing.
Speaker 2: And the wealthy people she approached were like, good luck
Speaker 2: with that. Wow, I love that for you, but that's
Speaker 2: not part of my journey. Yeah, and so she's again undeterred.
Speaker 2: That's like her perpetual states.
Speaker 3: So she's excuse me, I've got to go take a soundbacks.
Speaker 2: God. So she starts chasing down a business loan. She
Speaker 2: told people that that would actually give her more control
Speaker 2: over the project.
Speaker 3: Business loan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that she'd get more respect. She you know what,
Speaker 2: I don't want private investors anyway.
Speaker 3: Totally, So she's going to go to a bank and
Speaker 3: ask them to back this business.
Speaker 2: Yeah. November twenty sixteen, that's what she did. She rolls
Speaker 2: up into City National Bank and is like, I'm here
Speaker 2: for twenty two million dollars love now? Oh yeah, she
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, she was. You can't just waltz in
Speaker 2: and ask for that kind of money by telling them
Speaker 2: that you'll soon be wealthy, totally, like you already have
Speaker 2: to have money. To get money in this life.
Speaker 3: Speaking bank, you have to have some proof of worth.
Speaker 2: Which she did. She had documents from a Swiss bank
Speaker 2: showing her balance at sixty million euros.
Speaker 3: She is impressive, that is sure.
Speaker 2: Why wasn't she just using that money? Well, because it
Speaker 2: doesn't exist, because she photoshopped the paperwork and so that's all. Well,
Speaker 2: and good, but City National wanted more.
Speaker 3: Documentary photoshop paperwork, like don't just.
Speaker 2: Bring these printouts on a fuzzy you know, ink jet.
Speaker 2: She's like, okay, I'll get on it. And then the
Speaker 2: bank gets an email from this dude, Peter Hennicky, and
Speaker 2: all of the documentation they asked for was in there,
Speaker 2: and then they're like, who, who's Peter Henneke And she
Speaker 2: kind of danced around it and never provided an answer,
Speaker 2: and then, like a real rare display of common sense,
Speaker 2: the bank denied her loan.
Speaker 3: Well, it is a bank.
Speaker 2: Undeterred, at the end of the year, she went to
Speaker 2: a Fortress investment group and asked for a twenty five
Speaker 2: to thirty five million dollar loan from them. Like that's
Speaker 2: a ballpark figure there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's just throwing out, you know, is there not
Speaker 3: a bank. I'm guessing they are more likely to be
Speaker 3: a sucker to this.
Speaker 2: Well, she she gave them the same phony documents. Okay,
Speaker 2: they said, cool. Right, First, she needed to pay us
Speaker 2: one hundred grand so that we can check you out,
Speaker 2: perform due diligence.
Speaker 3: Give us some money so we believe you be worth money.
Speaker 2: All right, Anna, It's like cool, Yeah, So then she
Speaker 2: turns around. She goes back to City National. She's like,
Speaker 2: do you remember how you wouldn't give me that giant loan? Well,
Speaker 2: in totally unrelated news, can I have a one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars line of credit? And they're like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: it's for business. They're like that's cool, Yeah, we can
Speaker 2: do that. They said that. So then and she like
Speaker 2: she nest the bankrupt there into letting her quote overdraft
Speaker 2: her account. She said she was going to wire money
Speaker 2: to cover the overdraft, like soon.
Speaker 3: Really really soon, real soon.
Speaker 2: So that's how she winds up with one hundred grand.
Speaker 2: So she goes and she gives that to Fortress.
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: While all of this is going on, she's like working
Speaker 2: her newly developed contacts to grow her brand.
Speaker 3: So I'm still hung up on she was given one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars as a credit line and said, can
Speaker 3: I you know overdraft by account while I'm doing all
Speaker 3: this And they're like yeah, cool, cool. We know ups
Speaker 3: and downs of money. I once put in a check
Speaker 3: into a bank that it was my own check, and
Speaker 3: I put it into the bank, deposited it, and then
Speaker 3: took out money against that and they were going to
Speaker 3: threaten to close down my account and report me to
Speaker 3: fraud for prosecution. And here's home girl going, can we
Speaker 3: just like forgive like one hundred grand just for a time?
Speaker 2: What's they're?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: Cool? Cool?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah right, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: I love your accent.
Speaker 3: Wow, accents are powerful.
Speaker 2: We really are. She buddies up to this woman Rachel
Speaker 2: Deloche Williams, who is it, a Vanity Fair photographer, and
Speaker 2: they've been like traveling in the same circles for a bit.
Speaker 2: Rachel knew of Anna at first and was also super
Speaker 2: impressed because Anna had forty thousand Instagram followers at social
Speaker 2: currency I suppose. I mean I told Jim Broke, so
Speaker 2: Anna basically like friend bombed her, buddy wooed her, took
Speaker 2: her to like pricey Nights Out, swept her up in
Speaker 2: like the cash money lifestyle Fair photographer, yeah, and then
Speaker 2: told her about her foundation project. And Anna was like,
Speaker 2: I stay at a really posh hotel instead of having
Speaker 2: like an apartment or a townhouse because I'm a German
Speaker 2: national and I'm on a visa, so I can't set
Speaker 2: up like a primary full time residence.
Speaker 3: I thought it was like, I don't that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, she's just like they won't let me. So
Speaker 2: February of twenty seventeen, Anna's living at eleven Howard, a
Speaker 2: chic boutique luxury house.
Speaker 3: Sounds like it, doesn't it sound like it.
Speaker 2: Howard Johnson, It's Elevin Howard, or as they describe themselves,
Speaker 2: this is this is. I found the opening of their
Speaker 2: website quote this innovative hotel where Danish minimalism meets New
Speaker 2: York realism. And then I closed the website. So that's
Speaker 2: all I have. I've seen enough bailiff remove this from
Speaker 2: my courtroom. So she like swanned around the joint in
Speaker 2: the bathrobe, acting like big imagine I act think the
Speaker 2: whole thing was hers. Yeah, because she's just like a tiny,
Speaker 2: little blonde She's like running around this bathrobe. The staff
Speaker 2: at the hotel loved her because she's like peeling off
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars bills for tips like it is nothing.
Speaker 2: It wasn't that's not like weird. In the world of
Speaker 2: high rollers.
Speaker 3: At high level hotels, a lot of them don't do.
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, but a lot and she is just peeling
Speaker 2: honeys like that is the whitest thing. Yeah, And So
Speaker 2: one of those staffers was Nefatari Nef Davis. She's twenty
Speaker 2: five years old. She was the hotel concierge. And that's
Speaker 2: a big gig, you know, like you have to have,
Speaker 2: I know, right Anne at the Howard Johnson.
Speaker 3: Because she's got to know everything is a college, so
Speaker 3: much stuff like helicopter who to charm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so Anna loved Nefy and she'd always stopped
Speaker 2: on her way in and out of the hotel and
Speaker 2: always every time left one hundred dollars tip, like just
Speaker 2: left her a crisp hunderd just for the chat.
Speaker 3: Ben Frank for your tongue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nef said of Anna, quote she ran that place.
Speaker 2: You know how Rihanna walks out with wine glasses. That
Speaker 2: was Anna, and they let her saren you and I
Speaker 2: are obsessed with Rihanna's leaving restaurants. She walks out at
Speaker 2: the end of a meal with wine in hand, and
Speaker 2: no one ever stops her because she's Rihanna.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Anna had the same attitude.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, this goes far.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 3: So she's question you if you don't question you.
Speaker 2: Yes, good call. And all I do is question myself.
Speaker 3: I know you do so.
Speaker 2: Anna, she's like charming Nef, and she didn't just stop
Speaker 2: to chat. She starts inviting her to like spa treatments
Speaker 2: and that kind of thing. She basically was like buying
Speaker 2: a buddy, but there was always an ulterior motive. So
Speaker 2: she starts telling Nef about the foundation idea of the
Speaker 2: social club. She needs help booking hard to get restaurant
Speaker 2: reservations in order to have like impressive business lunches and
Speaker 2: dinners attract investors, and Nef is like, I'll hold my
Speaker 2: new friend. You know, Anna, you're just too interesting and
Speaker 2: too strange. I'll do this. So she did have some
Speaker 2: funny business shuffling between.
Speaker 3: Do you think, by the way reading about her, that
Speaker 3: she was funny in person? Like what do you think
Speaker 3: she had some level of child I.
Speaker 2: Think she was like brassy and like.
Speaker 3: Fascy would people wouldn't, yeah, and just like and like, okay,
Speaker 3: I was just curious.
Speaker 2: So she's still she's still working City National and Fortress
Speaker 2: against each other. She managed to get out of the
Speaker 2: Fortress thing, like while they were still in the due
Speaker 2: diligence phase. Okay, yeah, so they refunded her fifty five
Speaker 2: thousand of that fee, of one hundred, and then she
Speaker 2: shuffled down forty five.
Speaker 3: This is what it costs, so they've already.
Speaker 2: Spent and then they shuffled that. She takes that that
Speaker 2: fifty five thousand, puts it into a City Bank account
Speaker 2: and use that to live large. Like, sorry, City National
Speaker 2: in your line of credit. Oh, that's city banks money, right.
Speaker 3: Okay, so she's got a different bank and she's now
Speaker 3: suddenly using a credit card.
Speaker 2: Yes, and so, but when you live like her, fifty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Is in Gover, Oh, it's like a couple of months maybe.
Speaker 2: So she had to go back to stiffing people on
Speaker 2: tabs and like not paying for hotel rooms.
Speaker 3: Like not being able to hear people she walks away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what she would do. So she went
Speaker 2: back and forth with eleven Howard, promising wire transfers and
Speaker 2: stuff like stalling getting the boot from the hotel because
Speaker 2: she was not paying and the hotel didn't want to
Speaker 2: offend her, piss her off because like she knew everyone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she's about to open the hottest social club in the city.
Speaker 2: One month though, the one month that she lived there,
Speaker 2: she ran up a thirty thousand dollars Bill, Are you kidding? No,
Speaker 2: I'm serious.
Speaker 3: So he ran one month.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hotel management they sent nef like look, twist her arm,
Speaker 2: get her to pay, and she's just brushing off, Like
Speaker 2: I don't brushing her off.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I didn't hear that walks away okay, yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 2: like starts gifting people's champagne, expensive bottles of champagne. Like
Speaker 2: that's not going to make this go away. She finally
Speaker 2: did wire the hotel thirty grand from City Bank fifty
Speaker 2: five thou Yeah, but she didn't give them a credit
Speaker 2: card for the charges that she was continuing to rack up.
Speaker 3: Oh, she's still saying that she's still.
Speaker 2: Staying there, And so that the thing is is that
Speaker 2: she'd already defeated eggs. She had depleted that City Bank account.
Speaker 2: Where did the thirty grand come? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Where did it come from? Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, Elizabeth. It was a classic move bad checks. Oh, yes,
Speaker 2: she was tiding check and like she would transfer the
Speaker 2: available funds before they bounced.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: And so May twenty seventeen, oh Anna went to Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 2: Nebraska see Birchter Hathaway Amos having its annual investment conference.
Speaker 3: You went to Warren Buffett's like will meeting.
Speaker 2: She would tell people, I gotta go see Warren Buffett.
Speaker 2: Warren Buffett did not know this.
Speaker 3: I bet not. She trying to troll for.
Speaker 2: So she legitimately went there. She she took a thirty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars private jet flight there and back. And
Speaker 2: it should come as no surprise that she did not
Speaker 2: actually pay for this. More promises of wire transfers. I
Speaker 2: feel like if I tried this, they wouldn't let the
Speaker 2: jet get off the ground without the money in hand.
Speaker 3: Of the time. Now some of us cannot do this.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised she's not pulling my daddy's a Russian oligarch
Speaker 3: to put a little fear exactly.
Speaker 2: So back in New York there were developments. Elevin Howard
Speaker 2: was like, we got to get paid.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She hadn't checked out. Yeah, she hadn't checked out when
Speaker 2: she went to Omaha, so she she's basically living there.
Speaker 2: Don't forget, she hadn't left in the credit card to
Speaker 2: charge for the stay. So while she's away in Omaha,
Speaker 2: they kick her out. They changed the key card to
Speaker 2: the room, they put all of her crap like design
Speaker 2: her clothes and all into storage and we'll release it
Speaker 2: when you pay that decent. Yeah. So she gets back
Speaker 2: and lost it. She absolutely lost it. So instead of
Speaker 2: the classic do you know who my dad is? Or
Speaker 2: like my favorite, I'll sue you, sure, she went full
Speaker 2: on like Russian FSB. Yes, she said she was gonna
Speaker 2: buy web domains in all of the hotel manager's names
Speaker 2: and blackmail them into buying them back from her.
Speaker 3: That is a new level.
Speaker 2: That's scary.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna ruin your life and everyone you know,
Speaker 3: your family, your neighbors.
Speaker 2: She talked her way into getting her stuff back, and
Speaker 2: then she was on her way. The threats were as
Speaker 2: empty as her bank account. Let's stop here for a moment,
Speaker 2: listen to some ads. Get centered, and when we come back,
Speaker 2: more antics, more anatics.
Speaker 3: Zaren, I'm still tripping about the FSB threats. I thought
Speaker 3: about that the entire break, leaning on.
Speaker 2: That I would have opened with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: I knew that the Russian oligarch fear would come in somehow,
Speaker 3: and you far exceeded what I meant.
Speaker 2: It was more just like the technique of it. She
Speaker 2: never really mentioned that, and apparently she learned that angle
Speaker 2: to say, I'm going to buy the domains and I'm
Speaker 2: going to make it your life, hell with it from
Speaker 2: Martin Screlly.
Speaker 3: Wait, the guy who's like did all of the like
Speaker 3: he raised insolent prices, own someone who tang album and
Speaker 3: in prison.
Speaker 2: Because they knew each other in social circles, he taught
Speaker 2: her that anyway.
Speaker 3: He wow, So it's one of his business moves. I imagine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so Nay soken just like absolutely scruples exactly.
Speaker 2: So she's booted out of her pash hotel gigs. Where
Speaker 2: do you go?
Speaker 3: Where do you go back to Germany.
Speaker 2: And get a real job?
Speaker 3: Back to Colo again? Am I? No?
Speaker 2: She reached out to that Vanity Fair photographer Rachel all Right.
Speaker 3: She's like, Rachel, I got a story for you.
Speaker 2: You would have gone an adventure. And she's like, Rachel,
Speaker 2: I have to reset my visa with a trip out
Speaker 2: of the country, and you know how we should do that.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Morocco. What I know, pure luxury eye popping. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Rachel's like why not? And like, Noel, I can tell
Speaker 2: you exactly why not.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Anna also invited her personal trainer.
Speaker 3: She has a personal, another friend.
Speaker 2: Who happened to be a photographer, and then the concierge
Speaker 2: from the hotel that just evicted her.
Speaker 3: You cannot afford this, girl.
Speaker 2: Declined, smart she had seen behind the curtain, she knew
Speaker 2: about Right now she has to. So Anna forwarded the
Speaker 2: hotel reservation confirmation email to Rachel, and it was for
Speaker 2: La Mammuonia Resort.
Speaker 3: Says, there, what are.
Speaker 2: We talking about when we say luxury Moroccan accommodation.
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I'll just be flat out with you.
Speaker 3: You know, I do not know.
Speaker 2: This seven thousand dollars a night a night, per night.
Speaker 2: I of course inspected their website. It's jaw dropping, and
Speaker 2: it like it's smelled good even through my laptop screen.
Speaker 3: I've never lived in a place that my rent for
Speaker 3: the month was that much, or not even half that much. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, exactly. Wow, And that's per night,
Speaker 2: per night. Yeah. And so she also Anna's like, you know,
Speaker 2: the thing is too okay. So that's we have the
Speaker 2: reservations for the hotel locked in, but my credit card
Speaker 2: is acting up, and so can you put everyone's flights
Speaker 2: on your card? And then I'll get you back asap,
Speaker 2: Rachel against my future advice? Right now? Did it?
Speaker 3: The vanity fair rider photography photographer? You know she ain't
Speaker 3: got that.
Speaker 2: No, the trip was amazing, Like the resort incredible. They
Speaker 2: had a private butler, the tennis lessons, spa treatments. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they were living it up.
Speaker 3: What the Daisy Buchanan is going on.
Speaker 2: After a couple of days of this like relaxation in pampering,
Speaker 2: they decided they wanted to go into Marrakesh and explore
Speaker 2: and like shop it up. Oh yeah, Anna wanted to
Speaker 2: look bad. She wanted a klftan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, which like Home among Us, doesn't I'd
Speaker 3: like to be lace.
Speaker 2: Yes, at the kaftan store. Klftans are us. Her credit
Speaker 2: card were.
Speaker 3: At this point, but the kafftans where you're like, I
Speaker 3: could go for some cas.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'll go with her. Yeah, I'll put
Speaker 2: the flight on my car if I get a kaftan
Speaker 2: out of it. So card gets declined and she's like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, you guys, I forgot to tell the
Speaker 2: bank that I'm traveling.
Speaker 3: This has actually happened to me. That's alegic that yeah,
Speaker 3: people could believe that.
Speaker 2: And I found though like back in that time, like
Speaker 2: mid twenty teens, that happened to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No.
Speaker 2: Now, I went out of the country last year and
Speaker 2: I went to like call AMEX and tell them. They're like,
Speaker 2: we don't care.
Speaker 3: They don't do that anymore.
Speaker 2: No, They're like, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 3: You know that totally That exact same time that happened
Speaker 3: to me is well, I had to call Bank of
Speaker 3: America and be like, look, I'm out of America and
Speaker 3: I need money.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no.
Speaker 2: I tried to do patively and they were like congratulations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess yeah, way to go girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So they're like, we got eyes on you everywhere.
Speaker 2: So her card's not working. She's like, I'll pay you
Speaker 2: back immediately to Rachel if you can put this kaftan
Speaker 2: on your card, okay, And she's like okay, fine, And
Speaker 2: then they go out to dinner and she's like, remember
Speaker 2: my card, Rachel, one more time. Okay fine. So she
Speaker 2: goes to pick up the tab for the fancy dinner
Speaker 2: and so, like they didn't like hit up a local
Speaker 2: market and sit on their hotel beds eating snack foods
Speaker 2: while watching Law and Order like I would chan on
Speaker 2: dates and yeah, no, they went to like fancy dinners.
Speaker 2: So the day after that they go to Explore again,
Speaker 2: and this time the hotel stopped Anna on her way
Speaker 2: out and they're like, you know, your credit card was declined,
Speaker 2: and so then she's like, okay, we'll take care of it.
Speaker 2: So then the day after that, the staff stops Rachel
Speaker 2: and they basically said, like, get your friend in line
Speaker 2: and have her pay up. She goes back to the room,
Speaker 2: she tells Anna. Anna's like, let me settle this. She
Speaker 2: goes to the front desk, comes back to the suite
Speaker 2: and it's like everything's cleared up. I took care of it. Zaren. Yes,
Speaker 2: close your eye, I want you to picture it. You
Speaker 2: are the day manager at La Mamounia Resort. You have
Speaker 2: a degree in hospitality and years of experience. You know
Speaker 2: how to be discreet, You know how to keep guests happy.
Speaker 2: You also run a tight ship. You've seen your share
Speaker 2: of grifters and scammers at luxury properties over the years.
Speaker 2: You can sniff them out. You weren't in when this
Speaker 2: Anna Delby checked in. Had you been, your conradar would
Speaker 2: have started pinging. Of course, you always have to give
Speaker 2: guests the benefit of the doubt. You don't want to
Speaker 2: accuse someone of being a criminal when they're just dinghy
Speaker 2: or irresponsible. Word travels fast in the world these circles.
Speaker 2: Such an accusation can be a business killer if it's
Speaker 2: not substantiated. But now you've seen all you need to
Speaker 2: see with this Anna Delvey. She's been running up charges
Speaker 2: and running away from you, and you are done. This
Speaker 2: ends now. You were told her group went on a
Speaker 2: day excursion, and you're waiting in the porte cochere that
Speaker 2: leads from the shaded driveway to the resort into a
Speaker 2: glossy marble lobby. The sun glints off your aviator sunglasses
Speaker 2: as a cool breeze ruffles the fronds of the palms
Speaker 2: framing the grand resort. On either side of you are
Speaker 2: associate managers, one holding the paperwork for the bill, the
Speaker 2: other holding a walkie talkie ready to summon resort security.
Speaker 2: Gentle music drifts out to the driveway from the luxe lobby.
Speaker 2: It's air delicately scented with sandalwood and damas grows, A
Speaker 2: range drover pulls up, and Anna and her group steps out,
Speaker 2: faces turning up to the afternoon sun. You step forward,
Speaker 2: Miss Delvy, you say, I do not mean to cause offense.
Speaker 2: It is important that we address the financial aspect of
Speaker 2: your stay here, but I wish to stress that I
Speaker 2: do so in a spirit of respect and consideration. She
Speaker 2: gives you a small grin and begins walking toward their villa,
Speaker 2: friends trailing behind like hapless ducklings following their mother into traffic.
Speaker 2: You and your colleagues follow. Miss Delvy. You repeat, I
Speaker 2: do not wish to be indelicate. May I respectfully bring
Speaker 2: to your attention that the account for your villa remains outstanding.
Speaker 2: I would be most grateful if we could arrange settlement immediately,
Speaker 2: should you prefer, our account's department would be delighted to
Speaker 2: coordinate discreetly with your office or personal assistant to ensure
Speaker 2: everything is managed smoothly. You're now standing in front of
Speaker 2: the door to the villa, blocking their entrance. There's a
Speaker 2: tense silence. Anna turns to one of her friends, Rachel.
Speaker 2: She says, can you put the charges on your card?
Speaker 2: I'm having a terrible time with my bank. They'll just
Speaker 2: put a hold, the charges won't go through. I'll get
Speaker 2: on the phone with my bank right now and arrange
Speaker 2: a wire. Does that satisfy you, Anna asks you, turning
Speaker 2: to stare daggers at you. Certainly, miss you say, as
Speaker 2: long as the wire is initiated today, I'll need confirmation.
Speaker 2: As soon as it's placed, certainly, says Anna, echoing your tone,
Speaker 2: you go back to your office and wait and wait.
Speaker 2: So saren she done? Did it? Rachel and the personal trainer,
Speaker 2: They're like, we're out of here.
Speaker 3: I thank goodness.
Speaker 2: They head back to New York almost immediately. Anna and
Speaker 2: the other friend, the other photographer, they stayed at the
Speaker 2: resort like, still soaking up the luxury. Rachel gets home
Speaker 2: and checks her card statement. She'd been charged for everything
Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars. That's more than she made in a year.
Speaker 3: So I'm assuming that it's like an amex if she
Speaker 3: was able to run it up like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Oh god God.
Speaker 2: So Anna texts Rachel and is like, I'm gonna, you know,
Speaker 2: wire the to you immediately. But we've all heard that
Speaker 2: one before. Then Anna gets back to the States and
Speaker 2: just avoids Rachel. And other people that she'd asked to
Speaker 2: front funds for are also they're starting to call in
Speaker 2: their loans, like the pressure is building. Anna got a
Speaker 2: room in a new hotel, The Beakman. Twenty days into
Speaker 2: her stay, she still hadn't paid, so they gave her
Speaker 2: the boot. Then she goes to the w and she
Speaker 2: only got like a night or so in there before
Speaker 2: she's kicked out for non paid. Yeah, like it's more
Speaker 2: corporate where they're like, no, seriously, we will not give
Speaker 2: you the key without a card. She starts like dining
Speaker 2: and dashing at like high end, like the restaurant at
Speaker 2: La Parker Meridian.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was just about to take a joke about
Speaker 3: that one. Nice restaurants, I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she jumped on her bill there. And Rachel, she's
Speaker 2: still trying to chase down that seventy grand and like
Speaker 2: she can't just write that one off like some art
Speaker 2: collector guy. So she starts investigating. She's snooping around into
Speaker 2: exactly who is Anna? How can I get my money back?
Speaker 2: And the thing about the Parker Meridian they filed charges.
Speaker 3: Good, I'm god, someone's like, let's bring in some authorities.
Speaker 2: Yes, so, Rachel, she's trying to chase down the seventy grand.
Speaker 2: She can't just write it off. She's investigating, She's snooping around.
Speaker 2: She's a young journalist, she's a photographer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I'm talking.
Speaker 2: Like, who is Anna? How do I get my money back?
Speaker 2: July thirty first, twenty seventeen, a story called quote wanna
Speaker 2: be socialite busted for skipping out on pricey hotel bills
Speaker 2: was published in The New York Post. And now everyone knew.
Speaker 3: Did she go as people she knew? Like other journalists
Speaker 3: cause I think she's a Nandy fair photographer. Should make
Speaker 3: this a story?
Speaker 2: Yeah at this point, not yet. And so Anna, she's
Speaker 2: like trying to squash it. She's telling all the people
Speaker 2: she knows, like, oh, it's false, you know, like a
Speaker 2: New York Post.
Speaker 3: He's got whiff of a good story in Ramby, Okay.
Speaker 2: And so I'm guessing they got you know, intel from
Speaker 2: like the hotels, you know, the concierge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe not whispered.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So with the article out, Rachel is like, I'm
Speaker 2: taking action. She goes to the cops to report. Cops
Speaker 2: don't care, I know New York City cops like the
Speaker 2: Strokes saying so they're like this is a civil matter,
Speaker 2: and like, you know, go to small claims. Seventy thousand
Speaker 2: is way beyond the cash. Yeah, so Rachel Larny right, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 2: Rachel and the others on the trip, they confronted Anna
Speaker 2: about her scams. Anna never broke like, She's like, I
Speaker 2: I did not call you. If anything, I'm the victim.
Speaker 2: These banks, My god, what they're doing to us. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 2: So Rachel, she'd really had enough, so she reached out
Speaker 2: to the New York County District Attorney's office. She's like, dudes,
Speaker 2: I want to report a con artist. And they're like, dude,
Speaker 2: I hear you, and we already know about it. Because
Speaker 2: she they already had her in their sights, kiting checks everywhere,
Speaker 2: and and now she's on the move. She's headed out
Speaker 2: to California. So on the way out of town, she
Speaker 2: hired criminal defense attorney to Hospodik she hired. Yeah. She
Speaker 2: wanted him to make the hotel bill skip charges go
Speaker 2: away because they were all misdemeanors, and so she didn't
Speaker 2: show up in court for those. She had her lawyer
Speaker 2: tell the judge that she was off to rehab in
Speaker 2: La oh No, and those charges were just the tip
Speaker 2: ofthy iceberg.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 2: So she's Rachel while this is going on, Rachel's out
Speaker 2: there testifying to the grand jury about everything she knows,
Speaker 2: and as a result, Anna gets formally indicted and charged
Speaker 2: with attempted grand larceny in the first degree Class C felony,
Speaker 2: the two counts, three counts of grand larceny in a
Speaker 2: second degree, and then a felony, one count of grand
Speaker 2: larceny in the third degree felony, one count of theft
Speaker 2: of services, which is a misdemeanor.
Speaker 3: As Heath led Joker once said, rack them up, rack
Speaker 3: them up, rack them.
Speaker 2: Up, exactly. So Anna, she's still in California, but that
Speaker 2: doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Did you look at passages in Malibu? Uh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, she really was the arm of the law. She
Speaker 2: is long October third, twenty seventeen. She's at passage is Malibu.
Speaker 2: She gets arrested out in front famous rehab facility. It's
Speaker 2: so many people get busted there, like the arrest count
Speaker 2: in front, like on the Citizen app It's just one
Speaker 2: after anout.
Speaker 3: I once knew a guy who worked with as a
Speaker 3: house painter who was very attractive. He was a male model.
Speaker 3: He had this older lady like maybe we were at
Speaker 3: the time. He was like, she was like probably middle
Speaker 3: age like maybe an early forties, late thirties or whatever.
Speaker 3: She like was like running for her husband and like
Speaker 3: promising him all this money was and she asked him
Speaker 3: to bust her out of passages. She got arrested out in.
Speaker 2: Front God bless you. Really, you don't. You're not anyone
Speaker 2: until you're arrested in front of passages. So she's arrested
Speaker 2: and gets sent back to New York where she's arraigned
Speaker 2: and remanded without bail, remand your honor all that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that story. So then the New York Post piece had
Speaker 2: kicked off like a media firestorm. I bet New York
Speaker 2: Magazine was like, what's.
Speaker 3: Up, we got dating on this one. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They published an in depth profile and jail house interview
Speaker 2: with her. The DA's office, meanwhile, was like, I'll give
Speaker 2: you a plea deal. You can serve three to nine years.
Speaker 2: Uh huh for everything you've done. She's like, no, big, Nope,
Speaker 2: looks like we got ourselves an old fashion trio. And
Speaker 2: so she went to court March twenty nineteen, press eating
Speaker 2: it up. She turned up every day at the courthouse
Speaker 2: in like crazy designer does.
Speaker 3: I'm sure like the cuts running a coverage all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there was an Instagram account that detailed her
Speaker 2: like vicious looks, Annadelvey Court looks. That's the account, and
Speaker 2: I can gladly tell you that. On April twenty fifth,
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, she was found guilty of four counts of
Speaker 2: theftis services, three counts of grand larceny, one count of
Speaker 2: attempted grand larceny, and then she got acquitted of one
Speaker 2: count of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny.
Speaker 2: She got four to twelve years in prison, which blew
Speaker 2: by the time proposed in the plea deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, three to nine and she got four to twelve.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Rachel an article for Vanity Fair, which then led
Speaker 2: to a book called My Friend Anna, The True Story
Speaker 2: of a Fake Heiress.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that's an option for a movie.
Speaker 2: By Lena Dunham. Oh no, less, but nothing's happened with
Speaker 2: it for Rachel. I mean, someone's got to get a
Speaker 2: book dealer.
Speaker 3: Rachel gets paid, and she got paid.
Speaker 2: I want, That's what I want. Anna made parole in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, but then not too long after she
Speaker 2: got nabbed by Ice.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: That was back when they wore uniforms and drove official vehicles.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at someone getting
Speaker 3: busted by ICE.
Speaker 2: It was a different, something different. Wow, she'd overstayed her visa,
Speaker 2: so they sent her off to an ICE facility.
Speaker 3: She was one of the ICE's early victims.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was somehow. At the same time, she managed
Speaker 2: to sell her story to Netflix for three hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: So she got busted by ICE before it was cool.
Speaker 3: Oh that's good for you. I know you like the pun.
Speaker 2: Thank you. So that three hundred and twenty thousand that
Speaker 2: got sucked up in immediately for restitution and lead. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Netflix released Inventing Anna, and it was produced by Shonda Rhymes.
Speaker 2: Became a huge hit, and I was all set to
Speaker 2: watch it, Like, I sat down on the sofa popcorn,
Speaker 2: I cracked open a Coke zero. I was ready to
Speaker 2: go because I thought it was a documentary. But then
Speaker 2: like it turns out it was a mini series based
Speaker 2: on a true story. I don't like watching those type
Speaker 2: of things to prep to tell you stories because then
Speaker 2: they're invented.
Speaker 3: Details you don't know if it's actual.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Saren. I'm a citizen journalist. Of course, Okay,
Speaker 2: I have standards, all right, Total. I also don't like
Speaker 2: watching videos if I can just read the information. So
Speaker 2: the public loved the series, Rachel didn't. She sued Netflix
Speaker 2: for defamation.
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 2: I know? Anna? She got out of iced attention on
Speaker 2: house arrest, and she had to wear an ankle monitor
Speaker 2: while awaiting possible deportation. She also was ordered to stay
Speaker 2: off social media.
Speaker 3: Total flight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, She said that the social media band was worse
Speaker 2: than the ankle monitor. It's an addiction.
Speaker 3: Peace, I really speak to our body times.
Speaker 2: Now. Gal's got to monetize these that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're getting away of her job.
Speaker 2: She started a podcast, the Anna Delvy Show, Are You
Speaker 2: Kidding Me? She also started filming a reality show because
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 3: Who would talk to her? I don't know who goes on.
Speaker 2: It was called The Show Is Delvy's Dinner Club, where
Speaker 2: she was going to have people over to her apartment
Speaker 2: for quote, intimate conversations about Anna's experience with the criminal
Speaker 2: justice systems, probably her strategy to rebuild her image and
Speaker 2: plans for the future. As of September twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: it has not been released and there's no telling it
Speaker 2: it ever, will be not satisfied with a podcast and
Speaker 2: a potential reality show Old gal hit Network TV. No,
Speaker 2: she was on the thirty third season of Dancing with
Speaker 2: the Stars. What I had no idea it had been
Speaker 2: on that long.
Speaker 3: Well, those aren't like normal seasons, like every time we
Speaker 3: make it, so it's like a.
Speaker 2: Year I've never seen it.
Speaker 3: That's crazy. Remember, she I guess, I guess she has
Speaker 3: the names.
Speaker 2: Address, so like, I guess you can leave for work.
Speaker 2: She'd be dazzled the ankle monitor. She like, yeah, it
Speaker 2: had like the little sequence like the and she just
Speaker 2: let her feet a fury loose. But she got eliminated
Speaker 2: in the second episode. Here's my favorite part the Dancing
Speaker 2: with the Star's co host Julianne Huff how you say?
Speaker 2: I think she asked her, like, what what's your takeaway
Speaker 2: from your experience on the show? And Anna just starts
Speaker 2: cracking up and goes nothing.
Speaker 3: Wow. Kept her normal charm.
Speaker 2: So earlier this year, she was in designer Elena Veles's
Speaker 2: New York Fashion Week runway show, still rocking the ankle monitor.
Speaker 3: Earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Earlier, Yeah, because I'm guessing that degration stuff does not
Speaker 2: apply equally to all, and I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 3: I'm leaving at that.
Speaker 2: Oh and not too long ago, like last month. I mean,
Speaker 2: don't forget. She's a convicted felon. Okay, did she do
Speaker 2: her time and she's parole, so.
Speaker 3: She did her four years and then it's on parole
Speaker 3: or no, she didn't even four years. She's on appeal
Speaker 3: or no, not.
Speaker 2: Even on appeal. She's just out on parole. And then
Speaker 2: ICE picked her up because her visas expired. And apparently
Speaker 2: if you're her, yeah whatever.
Speaker 3: Okay, little blonde who wears a bathrobe and people go,
Speaker 3: I love her, then your ICE problems are different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not on your way to suitan Yeah, not
Speaker 2: too long ago, like last month. She did an Instagram
Speaker 2: photo shoot in Prospect Park in New York for Who.
Speaker 2: Well it wound up being really controversial.
Speaker 3: Who needed the name brand recognition of.
Speaker 2: This in an Instagram photoshoot? Maybe I do those with
Speaker 2: the dog. It was controversial because there were all these
Speaker 2: rabbits in the shoot. Rabbits, yeah, and I guess like
Speaker 2: the stylist for the shoot and got them from some
Speaker 2: animal rescue. And then when the shoot was done. They
Speaker 2: just released them all into the park.
Speaker 3: Into the Central Park, the Prospect Park, and.
Speaker 2: Then Anna just blamed everyone else. She's like, well, no, naturally.
Speaker 3: I saw bunnies are fun.
Speaker 2: That's ridiculous takeaway.
Speaker 3: Wow, Like, you know, I've always enjoyed being me, But
Speaker 3: the world would be like just like sideways if I
Speaker 3: had the ability of these type of criminals, because like
Speaker 3: I was a very unscrupulous teenager. Could you imagine if
Speaker 3: I was born into the chaos of post Soviet Russia
Speaker 3: and then also had like this physicality on my side
Speaker 3: and then my attitude of being like I would have
Speaker 3: to work on the shameless part that she's got there?
Speaker 2: Didn't she lean into the I'm a victim of the
Speaker 2: collapsing Soviet states.
Speaker 3: I don't think she read enough history. You know, maybe
Speaker 3: her family didn't really tell her enoughing Jermany. They didn't
Speaker 3: want to bring it up anymore, you know, they were
Speaker 3: looking forward.
Speaker 2: And she's like she went there like a like sixteen
Speaker 2: or twelve.
Speaker 3: I don't know anyway, what's yours, Elizabeth? What's your ridiculous takeaway? Thanks?
Speaker 2: I'm in awe. I'm disgusted and in awe. And it's
Speaker 2: like it's I didn't have too much of a problem
Speaker 2: with her until she went after Rachel.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, I really just like, you know, she's
Speaker 3: trying to make it in this world.
Speaker 2: Nef was wise, Nef didn't get stung, but like Rachel
Speaker 2: is just you know, she's an artist basically in journalism
Speaker 2: in the in New York and it's so expensive, and
Speaker 2: she's like gets this opportunity, like you know, but again,
Speaker 2: if something's too good to be true, it is I
Speaker 2: need to talk about. Golly Dave, oh my god, that.
Speaker 3: I let get so.
Speaker 5: I just finished listening to your latest podcast and I
Speaker 5: couldn't get past Zarren's ridiculous thing. At first, I was reacting,
Speaker 5: like Elizabeth, what a horrible thing to do to these people.
Speaker 5: But then I was like, where did they get the pillowcases?
Speaker 5: Where did they suddenly find pillows to dis robe? Who
Speaker 5: thought of this? Pillowcases? Why people in pillowcases? Like maybe sacks,
Speaker 5: but pillowcases. Thank you guys, so.
Speaker 2: Much, thank you for saying, yes, my girl logistics see.
Speaker 3: Little people in pillowcases is wrong.
Speaker 2: From the opening of what movie was that?
Speaker 3: The Pinocchio in New York?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like that's the thing Walt Disney had a thing.
Speaker 3: He's like, how about twelve eleven?
Speaker 2: She's what she's saying is so spot on. It's one
Speaker 2: thing that Oh it's sore. Who went and got the pillowcases?
Speaker 2: And from where did they source them?
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, gus were talking about throwing resputant in a river.
Speaker 3: This just ain't right.
Speaker 2: They go to a nearby hotel and raid the linens.
Speaker 3: But possibly that is a good question.
Speaker 2: That is a good question. I love this. That's got
Speaker 2: me thinking. That's it for today. You can find us
Speaker 2: online at Ridiculous Crime dot com. We won another award
Speaker 2: zeron the website for our award cabinets Getting Full by
Speaker 2: the way, but this one's actually a certificate. Oh anyway,
Speaker 2: the website won the forty eighth annual Tight Butts Drive
Speaker 2: Me Nuts pro am Golf Invitational at Pebblebeach.
Speaker 3: From that wrench company that turns the nuts right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the Tight Butts Ratchet Company. Well done, Well done, everybody.
Speaker 2: We're on YouTube at Ridiculous Crime Pod. We're on Blue
Speaker 2: Sky Instagram. You can email us at Ridiculous Crime at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com and then leave a talk back on
Speaker 2: the iHeart app reach out Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Sutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Dave Kusten,
Speaker 2: who will inherit seven hundred million dollars when he turns
Speaker 2: twenty five next.
Speaker 3: Week You should call him.
Speaker 2: Starring an Alice Rutger as Judith. Research is by Instagram
Speaker 2: Darling with four point eight billion followers Christa Carruthers. The
Speaker 2: theme song is by Euro Party Boys Thomas Lee and
Speaker 2: Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred
Speaker 2: guest heron makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers
Speaker 2: are New York Art Scene financiers Ben Bollen and Noel Brown.
Speaker 5: Dis Crime Say It One More Time Gus Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.