Between Morocco and a Hard Place

The story of Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey, a 20something scam artist who Instagrammed her way through New York’s coolest hotels, clubs and restaurants leaving debts of more than $250,000, has been one of this year’s most talked about Netflix dramas.

In Inventing Anna, Julia Garner plays the elusive ‘German heiress’ who plans to set up an arty, exclusive private member’s club in Manhattan. Speaking in a pan-European accent, and sporting Céline glasses and black designer leisurewear, she manoeuvred her way towards $25 million of funding, and - to the embarrassment of banks and business advisors - came tantalisingly close to getting it.

But it was a trip to Morocco that triggered her downfall.

Friends in Low Places, the excruciating and mesmerising ‘Morocco episode’ of Inventing Anna, was a true story with a few tweaks. In May 2017, Anna flew into the charismatic, chaotic city of Marrakech with three companions: Rachel DeLoache Williams, her good friend who was a photo editor at Vanity Fair magazine, Kacy Duke, a celebrity trainer who’d worked with Denzel Washington and Dakota Johnson, and a photographer called Jesse Hawk who’d been invited along to document the fun. All believed they were going to enjoy a luxury break entirely at Anna’s expense while she ‘reset’ her visa.

Anna’s chosen destination was La Mamounia, one of the world’s great hotels - a bold move when the credit cards in her designer handbag were running on empty.

La Mamounia hotel

Built almost 100 years ago among olive groves outside the ancient medina, La Mamounia manages to be both regal and decadent, with traditional geometric tiling and carved woodwork linking its contemporary restaurants, and a super-relaxing spa, tennis courts and pool. It was a location for movies starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. And its guest list pays tribute to an ability to understand changing notions of luxury and privilege - Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Yves Saint-Laurent, the Rolling Stones, Nelson Mandela, Sarah Jessica Parker and Khloé Kardashian have all turned heads here over the decades.

It’s a place we should visit once in our lifetime, aspiring perhaps to one of the elegant suites decorated in dark, rich tones. Anna, however, booked a three-bedroom private riad with separate living spaces, pool and private butler at a cost of around $7,000 a night.

The journey was not without hiccups. Due to a ‘glitch’ with Anna’s credit card, Rachel was asked to use one of her bank cards to secure outward flights. But the whole group was thrilled with the VIP service that whisked them from airport to La Mamounia by Land Rover, and their gorgeous riad. Jesse Hawk described their giddy mood in a Guardian podcast: ’bottles of champagne were being popped…everyone [was] walking around taking pictures on their phones of the house we were going to stay in’.

In a 2018 article for Vanity Fair, Rachel described the fun of the first couple of days: swimming in their private pool, cocktails in the Churchill bar, a butler swishing in with watermelon and rosé, private tennis lessons. With a tour guide organised by the hotel, the group hit the medina where Anna bought $1,300 worth of kaftans - although once more her card failed and the cost went on to one of Rachel’s. Rachel also paid for dinner at La Sultana, a beautiful hotel in the medina with flower-filled courtyards and a rooftop terrace high above the hubbub of Marrakech street life. Jesse explained: “There were issues with Anna’s card from the beginning…her card never worked.”

More problems arose. Kacy came down with a stomach bug and flew home, and on several occasions Anna was drawn aside by hotel staff to discuss her malfunctioning bank cards to which, according to Rachel, she would respond with “ugh, why!” and a torrent of messaging on her iPhone. A private tour of Yves Saint Laurent’s cactus-filled botanical garden, Le Jardin Majorelle, added $1,600 to the cost of the holiday. It went on Rachel’s card.

Le Jardin Majorelle

It seemed that La Mamounia had quickly become aware they had a problem guest. While living in New York hotels, Anna was able to avoid payment for weeks on end. In Morocco she met her match on day three.

Rachel told Stylist magazine “I walked into our villa and the hotel managers were standing in the doorway. Anna was sitting with her phone on the table in front of her, like she was waiting for something. A call, apparently. One of the managers turned to me and asked if I had a credit card. They were firm. I looked to Anna and she said ‘use it for now’. My stomach sank.”

The decision left Rachel with a charge of $62,000 on her credit card, more than her annual wage. She flew out of Marrakech the next morning believing that her friend would soon transfer her the money.

Unabashed, Anna continued her Moroccan adventure. She booked a car to take her to Kasbah Tamadot. This award-winning Virgin Limited Editions hotel is an atmospheric hillside fortress conversion perched in the Atlas Mountains, an hour outside Marrakech. With just 28 rooms, it’s a languorous resort that specialises in R&R, whether via a mule trek, a Moroccan cookery lesson or just spending time absorbing spectacular Atlas views from the fragrant gardens. The details of what happened there are hazy. Did Anna book one of the Berber tents with al fresco, star-lit hot tub? Or a traditional Moroccan cleansing ritual with black soap in the Asounfou Spa? We know only that, according to an interview Anna gave to The Times, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, was also in residence: “He was playing chess and was there with his mum,” she said. And she’s vague on what the NY Post reported as a $20,000 bill that was presented at the end of her stay, saying: “I don’t think I did [pay] because it wouldn’t make sense from the timeline because I owed Rachel that money.”

Kasbah Tamadot. Photo: Julia Maudlin, Flickr

From here, Anna was driven to the Four Seasons Hotel Casablanca, having first attempted - unsuccessfully - to hire a helicopter for the journey. This is a sleek, breezy, alcohol-free hotel 10 minutes from the glitzy port city and works best for pool ‘n’ spa time and lazy meals of Med-style lobster and ray fish in Bleu restaurant, which has big sunset views over the Atlantic. Jesse Hawk departed for Casablanca airport where, he told The Guardian, Anna had assured him a ticket for a flight back to New York would be waiting for him. However, he said, “after spending 4 1/2hrs in a car to get to Casablanca I arrived at a desk to find no ticket. I had to buy a last-minute one-way ticket out of Morocco - and those aren’t cheap.”

A week after she’d flown back to New York, Kacy had recovered from her bug and received an unexpected phone call. It was Anna, who was calling from the front desk of the Four Seasons. Sobbing, she explained that her credit cards weren’t working and that the hotel was threatening to call the police. As Kacy later told Jessica Pressler, the journalist who featured in Inventing Anna, she was in two minds about what to do but then gave the hotel her own credit card number. Fortunately for her, that was also declined and the hotel concluded that the problem might be at their end.

Anna came back on the line. Could Kacy please book her a ticket back to New York, she begged. Of course, said the trainer. Then came: ‘Can you get me first class?’ Kacy was not able to oblige.

The Morocco trip had now entirely unravelled. But the real fall out came several months later, when Rachel helped the police to find and arrest Anna, who was charged with grand larceny and theft of services, which covered several New York hotel stays. In 2019, she was found guilty of several counts of grand larceny and sentenced to four to 12 years in jail.  Interestingly, however, she was found not guilty of stealing from Rachel.

Fast forward to Inventing Anna. The happy surprise is the prominent role La Mamounia plays in the show’s Morocco episode. Despite its stressful experience, the hotel not only allowed Netflix to film there, but also made available the very riad where Anna and her friends stayed. Why? It seems the legendary grande dame decided to roll an amused eye at youthful misdemeanours. And it showed that once again it is adapting to contemporary fashions, this time advertising itself to a new generation of social media-oriented tourists who fell in love with its style on Netflix - and were prepared to use functioning credit cards to experience it for themselves.

Journey’s end, Casablanca.

Photo: amajou abdou from Pixabay