‘Aloof’ Anna Delvey, still under house arrest in New York, speaks to Harvard Business School students via video link

Anna Delvey, the notorious fraudster whose life of deception and manipulation inspired the Netflix biopic Inventing Anna, addressed MBA students at Harvard University via video link, it has been revealed.

Delvey, previously known as Anna Sorokin, spoke via video link from her New York City apartment where she is currently on house arrest. ‘She appeared on camera wearing a full face of makeup, deliberately lit. She sported a crimson sweatshirt emblazoned with the Harvard Undergraduate Beekeepers logo,’ according to student publication, the Harvard Crimson. She was ‘aloof and gave short, evasive answers’ and at one point ‘filed her nails’. 

Delvey was invited to speak to second-year business school students in a course called ‘Borderline’. ‘The class description says it explores “companies driven by well-intentioned managers whose plans go astray, ambitious entrepreneurs who misjudge their risks, and professional organizations led by scamsters”,’ according to Page Six, which first reported news of her speaking engagement. 

Certainly, Delvey’s is not the typical road one takes to becoming a speaker at one of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions. Arrested in 2017 and charged with grand larceny and theft of services, Delvey, previously known as Anna Sorokin, was found guilty in April 2019, and sentenced to 4 years in an American prison. She was released in April 2021 on good behaviour and enjoyed a brief spell of freedom before being taken into a detention centre for overstaying her visa. Since the autumn, Delvey has been living under house arrest in an apartment in New York’s East Village, from where she has been conducting media interviews and posed for photoshoots. 

But Delvey’s colourful past hasn’t excluded her from engagements at other universities, according to The New York Post. ‘A source tells us Delvey has also spoken to some NYU students for their thesis, and that Oxford University in England has also reached out,’ the publication reports. A social media post shared by Delvey shows her holding a virtual Q&A session with students from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. 

Dubbed the ‘Soho grifter’, Delvey made front page headlines after months of claiming to the rich and influential of New York that she was a German heiress, with the apparent intention of living a millionaire’s lifestyle – without the cost. 

In Inventing Anna, Delvey, who is played by Ozark’s Julia Garner, is depicted scamming her way into the high-society social circles of Manhattan’s elite. Dressed in glamorous ensembles, laden with jewellery and designer bags, the fraudster is whisked about on private jets or yachts under the guise of her family’s (non-existent) wealth and status. The faux heiress is the epitome of ‘fake it till you make it’ – living a life of abundant luxury at the heart of America’s elite, with allegedly no intent of paying for her lifestyle or validating her circumstances.

However, Delvey rejects the ‘conwoman’ label that has been assigned to her name. ‘I got famous for a financial crime,’ she told Tatler in a February 2022 interview. ‘I was charged with six grand larcenies, and got convicted of four… It was the prosecutors’ job to make me look bad, but in the end, they got upset for how famous I got over it.’

Certainly, Delvey’s persistence remains as present as ever. She has reportedly made $340,000 by selling her artwork to fans (she has 1.1 million Instagram followers) and has plans to host a ‘trendy dinner party series’ in the same apartment where she is under house arrest, the Post reports. Her 32nd birthday last month was celebrated with a party that was photographed and appeared in print (guests signed NDAs). 

The next stop in Delvey’s unlikely career trajectory is set to be the hallowed halls of Harvard. If the Post is correct, she could soon be imparting her wisdom to the scholars of Oxford, too.