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This is the first time I'm sharing this story, as a "me too" on the back of this article in @VanityFair
"Anna Delvey" got in touch with me via a mutual contact, asking my studio for a visual identity and pitch deck for a $28m members club in Manhattan.https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan …
I looked her up, and there she was, hanging out with well known publishers, socialites, and artists at parties in New York and Paris. 40k followers on IG (@annadlvv). The raw pitch document is made by one of the most prestigious architectural firms in NYC. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=anna+delvey&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_lL2Wr7jaAhVECcAKHbcFDUIQ_AUICygC&biw=1309&bih=709 …
She calls it the "Anna Delvey Foundation". I know. It's a private members club, a setting to showcase her Köln based family's art collection. It would have a German bakery, restaurants, a basement nightclub, an artist residency program, and roof terrace overlooking Central Park.
An entrepreneur in the NYC startup scene who I worked with is listed as an advisor, I drop him a mail that I'm working with Anna, he raves about her. Seems legit!
We start working on the project, we sign NDAs and agreements. She's responsive and a pleasure to work with. She casually tells me of investments in AI research projects. She tells me how much everyone loves the deck. I hire a top Art Director I like working with for the project.pic.twitter.com/2u4F40Xt8O
You know where this is going. Invoices were late and the incredibly elaborate excuses began, and did not stop for over 14 months. The project budget was considerable, and I had a freelancer to pay. These examples came several months after invoices were due, and are 100% BS:pic.twitter.com/MukOe0vuzx
Literally 100s of painful emails followed, complete with fictitious family financial managers CCed, who'd muscle in every-time I threatened to reach out to named advisors in the deck, or seek legal action. As a small business owner it was a gruelling ride and nearly shut us down.
After a year, I put a Google Alert on her name and shortly after, articles started showing up. I can't tell you how relieved I was to at least have my fears verified. At first she was up for dodging hotels and restaurant bills.https://nypost.com/2017/07/31/wannabe-socialite-busted-for-skipping-out-on-pricey-hotel-bills/ …
But as word got out, other victims came out the woodwork. Anna missed a hearing and was arrested hiding in a drug rehab in California. Meanwhile, I contacted the New York District Attorney's office to share my story, and submitted evidence.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5023001/Fake-socialite-scammed-275k-hotels-banks-friends.html …
Seeing a client show up in the Daily Mail is right up there as the weirdest conclusion of a project in my career.
The thing about being conned is that you don't want to believe humans like this exist. What drives a human to such exhaustive lengths to fake a reality that will eventually consume them? Which sane person chooses to lie at such an industrial scale?
Tricksters can operate anywhere, but the whole experience felt born out of the shorthand, pressure cooker of a social scene that is New York. I love NYC, but "Anna Delvey" is the malignant child of Manhattan.
I could not help but be reminded of these words from Brett Easton Ellis' ode to New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzC_Ax3-ors …. In the book, Patrick Bateman is confronted with the interchangeability and anonymity of his being, with characters constantly mixing up each others names.
I think Anna very shrewdly used the shallow digital shorthand of Instagram that many of us accept as being a mirror of someone's life. Within a year she managed to snowball her way from intern at Purple Mag, to a fabulous German Heiress in New York, one internet search at a time.
Via the pitch deck we designed, I know there are others who have decided to not go public, I respect that. But Anna would not be in jail now if it hadn't been for the first person to tell their story. There is also the mystery of her real background, which is still unknown.
The last thing: as a designer I find it so crazy that my services where used to trick banks and hedge funds out of $28,000,000. I still have the keynote. It's not a pitch deck, it's a work of fiction. It's graphic design weaponised as an instrument of grand larceny.pic.twitter.com/NPifSZn5WI
Is there a lesson to be learned here? Or is this just a sad side spectacle of the digital surface we increasingly live on? Here's the result of Anna's ambitions to abuse that surface, it looks all too real. Goodnight.pic.twitter.com/jpZoQyR6vi
unbelievable
I'll wager there'll be a movie. Directed by Sofia Coppola if it stops here, maybe P.T. Anderson if the story continues.
I‘d watch that. Insane story and glad you shared it. Hope it reminds everyone to insist on upfront payments no matter how shiny or related the client, saved me from a few unexpectedly shady people back in the day...
Posted some screenshots tohttps://www.are.na/alexander-chamorro--2/anna-delvey …
Might add some things on there...
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