Anna Sorokin Case: Victim Calls Fake Heiress 'A Sociopath,' 'An Extreme Narcissist'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Conned by a phony socialite, the former Vanity Fair editor who helped bring down the "SoHo scammer" is breaking her silence.
Rachel Deloache Williams spoke to CBS2's Jessica Moore about her new book, My Friend Anna, The True Story of a Fake Heiress.
In 2016, Anna Delvey blew onto the New York City social scene as the newest "it girl" in town, telling friends she was the heiress to a billion dollar German fortune.
"She said she had a trust fund, that her family was wealthy," said Deloache Williams. "She would elude to it vaguely. It was a house of cards where everyone knew the same story about her, so if she didn't tell you directly, you'd hear it from someone else."
By 2017, Delvey - whose real name is Anna Sorokin from a middle class family in Russia – and Deloache Williams had become inseparable.
"I was fascinated by her," said Deloache Williams. "She just did whatever she wanted in a way that mystified me."
That summer Anna invited her on an all-expense paid trip to Morocco.
When Sorokin's credit cards were declined, she'd ask Williams to foot the bill, always promising to pay her back.
"It really snowballed," said Williams. "It wasn't from the offset, I need to cover the cost of this. That's the way the con worked. It's one small thing, and then since you did that one small thing, do you mind this and then it just escalated."
By the end of the trip, Deloache Williams says she had been duped out of $62,000, more than a year's salary for the Vanity Fair photo editor.
"I was extremely stressed but as soon as she wires me the money, which she said would happen the following week, this is going to be OK, she just going to come through," she said. "She's my friend, I trust her. And of course that never happened."
In October 2017, prosecutors charged Sorokin with fraud, saying she convinced a bank employee to give her $100,000 for a fake charity. She conned her way into weeks of luxury hotel stays and skipped out on private jet fees and restaurant tabs.
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Deloache Williams testified against Sorokin in court.
"It was really hard," she said.
The jury acquitted Sorokin on the charges against Deloache Williams even though they found her guilty on other charges.
"It was really devastating, it was really hard," said Deloache Williams. "I know the evidence was there. I lived through it. I know she committed this crime. I know exactly how it happened. So I was very grateful to have the book to tell my story. This isn't where people's opinion of me gets to end."
Deloache Williams says she hasn't spoken to Sorokin in more than a year. She says her book is meant to set the record straight and to remind herself how far she's come.
"I feel that Anna is a sociopath," said Deloache Williams. "If feel that she's an extreme narcissist.... I'm never going to be OK with what she did, but I feel like it's a part of my past."
Sorokin was found guilty on fraud charges and now faces 4 to 12 years in prison.
Deloache Willilams says American Express covered about $52,000 of the fraudulent hotel charges from Morocco.
Her book deal has helped her recoup the remaining $10,000.
