This Student Went On A Million Dollar Shopping Spree—But Then The Cops Caught Up With Her
When this international student living in Australia saw that there was extra money going into her account, she didn't question it. She did what she believed anybody in her position would do: she went on a shopping spree. Not just any shopping spree, though. We're not talking about a couple of hundred dollars here, we're talking about millions. This woman managed to spend millions of dollars in a very short amount of time.
When Christine Lee discovered that her bank account was suddenly seemingly bottomless, she took full advantage. Keep reading to find out where all of that money was coming from.
Studying In Australia
At the time of this incident, Christine Jia Xin Lee was an international student studying at Sydney University. She is originally from Malaysia. Her family back in Malaysia is quite wealthy, so they were able to pay for her studies and give her a handsome allowance. Her parents would deposit money directly into her Australian bank account.
Lee was studying to be an engineer. She was doing quite well in her classes and was adjusting to life in a new country.
Her Australian Bank Account
Lee needed to be able to access funds while studying abroad, so she opened a bank account with Australia's Westpac Banking Corporation in 2012 just before she turned 18. While in Australia, Lee decided to use her parents' money to expand her wardrobe.
She would show up to class in designer threads, sporting expensive handbags and shoes. She liked to wear the most expensive clothes that money could buy. She started to get a reputation around campus for being quite the fashionista.
People Just Assumed She Was Rich
Most college students in Australia shop on the high street, which is the Australian and British equivalent of stores like American Eagle, Zara, and H&M. Those clothes aren't necessarily cheap, but they're by no means designer. Christine's wardrobe was very different. Nearly everything she had was designer, from Cartier bracelets to Christian Louboutin heels. Even her phone case was made by the Italian luxury fashion house Moschino.
People just assumed that Lee was a rich girl who came from a rich family.
So Many Clothes
After living in Sydney for a year, Lee had accumulated more clothes than most people buy in a decade. Her closet was overflowing with designer shoes and bags that were worth as much as most people's cars.
She owned at least ten Hermès Birkin handbags. Birkin bags are some of the most exclusive and sought-after goods in fashion, and the price for one small bag starts at $12,000. Some of their bags are well over $200,000.
The Numbers Didn't Add Up
We already know that Lee's parents are wealthy, but they're not ten Birkin bags in a year wealthy. Something fishy was definitely going on here. Lee was spending thousands of dollars as if that kind of money meant nothing to her. Her parents didn't have the kind of money to support an out of control shopping addiction.
That begs the question, where was all of this money coming from? If it wasn't from her parents, who was it from?
Lee Didn't Ask Questions
Lee did notice that there was more money in her bank account than usual, but she just thought that her parents had increased her monthly allowance. She didn't think much of it and she just increased her spending now that she had more money to spend. She never asked her parents why they increased her allowance or if there was some kind of mistake.
Even though Lee sensed that something was off with regards to her funds, she didn't want to give up her lavish lifestyle.
Freezing Her Account
For four months, Lee continued to receive excess funds in her Australian bank account. For all of that time, she never mentioned the extra money to her parents. Maybe she thought that they were sending her extra money by mistake and she didn't want them to stop making that mistake. Maybe she was just too caught up in her spending to stop and think about the consequences of her actions.
For many months Lee was able to get away with it but finally, on April 7, 2015, her account was frozen.
A Million-Dollar Transfer
It took eleven months for Westpac's Product Risk unit to clue into the fact that there was suspicious activity going on in Lee's account. Lee wasn't trying to hide anything. She wasn't spending conservatively by any means.
On April 7, 2015, the Australian bank froze Lee's account because she had made 14 transactions in one day and all of them involved transferring a total of $1,165,719.95 AUD into her own PayPal account. That just isn't normal.
How Much Did She Spend?
Lee had never spent so much money in one day before, and that's what alerted the bank to the suspicious activity, but in the eleven months that her account was actively receiving money, Lee spent $4.6 million.
The bank was floored when they realized that she had spent so much. How could a college student have spent this much money without investing in any kind of property or luxury vehicles? That's a lot of shopping!
It Almost Went Undetected
Lee probably realized that the authorities were hot on her trail because she tried to hide the money by making a million-dollar transfer to PayPal. She also made arrangements to obtain an emergency passport. After attempting to purchase an airline ticket, she was put on a no-fly list.
On May 4, 2016, Lee was apprehended and arrested at the Sydney Airport while trying to board a flight back to Malaysia. She couldn't keep running forever.
Caught By The Police
At the time of Lee's arrest, police alleged that she overdrew her account by $4.6 million in 2012 and hadn't paid any of it back in four years. Lee was officially charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
After she was taken into police custody, Lee was held by the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney due to her visa status despite being able to post her $1,000 bail thanks to her boyfriend.
Her Boyfriend Had No Idea
Lee's boyfriend, a young man by the name of Vincent King, was allegedly unaware of his girlfriend's financial activity, despite the fact that they had been dating for 18 months prior to her arrest. He claimed that he had never even seen her make an extravagant purchase.
When reporters told King how much his girlfriend had taken, all he said was, "that's big money." But as the case unfolded, it seemed that Lee knew precisely what she was doing.
Buying Everything In Sight
Although her parents and boyfriend apparently didn't know what she was up to, Christine Lee was indeed making some extravagant purchases. On one occasion, Lee visited five designer boutiques in one day and dropped a total of $310,000.
Aside from her handbags, clothes, and jewelry, other luxurious purchases that Lee made included a Sony "digital selfie" camera, two Casio cameras, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, Chanel cashmere pillows, two smartphones, and 13 Hermès scarves, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Living Large
Lee also put herself up in a luxury apartment in Rhodes that overlooked the Sydney harbor. Rent for Lee's sub-penthouse cost up to $3,120 AUD per month and Lee managed to make those payments.
Lee frequented a hair salon located in her apartment building, where hairdressers were shocked at the news. They told Daily Mail Lee showed no signs of a lavish lifestyle and that she was "a nice girl but she didn't talk too much."
Moving Funds
Lee's suspicious activity began back in 2014. On July 22 of that year, a rent payment of $3,454 caused her first overdraft. Despite the fact that she was able to pay it back, she devised a plan to avoid making the same mistake.
She began transferring small sums into her own PayPal account. Eventually, the sums became larger and larger until seven months later, when about $4.5 million had been transferred to her PayPal.
Hiding The Money
Of the $4.5 million in Lee's PayPal account, half was transferred to two separate Commonwealth Bank accounts. According to some reports, Lee was soon transferring about $5,000 a day into "secret accounts" in other Australian banks.
The Daily Telegraph reported that over a nine-month period, $33,000 was sent to bank accounts not associated with Westpac bank each week. At first, the frequent transfers were small enough to go undetected by Westpac employees until Lee attempted to move over $1 million in one day.
No Criminal Charges
Miraculously, the charges brought against Lee in court were dropped. Magistrate Lisa Stapleton initially cast doubt on the case.
Stapleton ruled that "Ms. Lee had allegedly used credit that was given to her by the bank and would therefore have to repay it rather than face criminal sanctions," according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Westpac Banking Corporation was ultimately at fault since they didn't catch the unlimited overdraft they placed on her account.
She Believed It Was Her Parents
For her part, Christine Jia Xin Lee acted oblivious to the bank's blunder. When Westpac's senior manager of group investigations initially called her on April 8, 2015, they asked her why her account was overdrawn by $4.6 million.
She told them that she thought her parents were putting the money in her account. "I have [told my parents about it] and they are not very happy with me," she later said on the phone call.
Admitting Fault
"I bought clothes, shoes, lots of handbags... They are in my unit at Rhodes," Lee also told the Westpac manager. At that point, she told them she only had $4,000 left.
With the charges against her dropped, she was left the responsibility to pay back all that she had taken. Westpac was able to get the $1.5 million back from PayPal, but there was still an outstanding $3 million that needed to be returned.
No More Bags
Lee returned at least 27 of the items she purchased, all totaling about $1 million. Westpac also secured an order from the Supreme Court that allowed them to seize any of Lee's assets that would repay the remaining cost, including over 100 handbags.
After all was said and done, Lee went back to Malaysia. "She's obviously very relieved that all this trauma is over for her," her lawyer told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Who Is Anna Delvey?
If you thought Christine Lee's story was crazy, Anna Delvey is doubling down on what's possible. This story has it all: money, celebrities, theft, scams, scandals, and conspiracy theories. Anna Delvey isn't even her real name. This girl manages to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and outwit some of our nations most reputable banks and institutions.
Anna Delvey is an Instagram sensation, a Blair Waldorf wannabe, and a girl on a mission. First of all, Anna Delvey's real last name is Sorkin, not Delvey. Anna was born in Russian in 1991. She moved to Germany when she was sixteen-years-old. When she got a competitive internship at Purple magazine in Paris, she changed her last name to Delvey. That's where she began deceiving and social climbing. Now Anna is in jail. She was indicted on six felony counts and one misdemeanor charge, including grand larceny.
What Made Her Famous?
The public became aware of Anna Delvey thanks to a Vanity Fair article that came out in April 2017. According to the article, Anna tricked her closest friends into believing that she was a German heiress.
Eventually, Anna moved to New York where she became involved in the art world and the New York social scene. She went to high-end restaurants, hotels, and other expensive venues which she paid for through fraudulent means. After a lot of lies and unpaid bills, Anna was charged with grand larceny due to outstanding hotel bills.
How Much Money?
Originally, Anna pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and theft of services amounting to "approximately $275,000 through multiple scams." Months later, she returned to court to ask the judge to lessen her plea deal sentence from a maximum of nine years to a maximum of three years.
The judge denied Anna's request. According to Jezebel, the judge said that Anna showed "little remorse" for her victims and she seemed "more concerned" about her publicity than the people she "allegedly took advantage of."
A TV Series In The Works
Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey's Anatomy and the producer of Scandal, bought the rights to the New York magazine profile of Anna Sorkin. She's developing her story into a Netflix Original series.
Anna's former friend Neff Davis said that Anna is already thinking about which actress will play her in the series. She said, "Oh, Anna's aware. She’s like, 'Okay, as long as Jennifer Lawrence or Margot Robbie play me,' And I’m like everyone wants Lindsay Lohan to play you and she’s like, 'Oh my god, no offense, but isn’t she like 30? My hair’s not even red anymore, did you tell them that?'" Honestly, I think Juno Temple would be great for the role.
Her Famous Friends
From the outside, Anna looked like a popular person who was a big part of New York's social scene. She had some famous friends, including Macaulay Culkin and Martin Shkreli. Anybody who's friends with Martin Shkreli is probably bad news.
Her glamorous lifestyle started to fall apart when businesses started realizing that Anna wasn't actually paying any bills. Her rich friends, and sometimes her not-so-rich friends, got stuck paying for everything. Anna's friends were more like pawns to her. She used them for money and for status.
She Tricked Vanity Fair's Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams is an American model, TV presenter, and designer. She spoke to Vanity Fair about how Anna tricked her out of how $62,000. Anna and Rachel vacationed in Morocco together.
Rachel said, "I was the victim of alleged grand larceny in the second degree — grand larceny by deception. Anna told me once that her plans were either going to work out, or all go horribly wrong. Now I see what she meant. It was a magic trick — I'm embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the audience, too. Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives."
How Did She Fool Everyone?
According to Rachel, Anna allegedly falsified documents. She made it look like she had a total of 60 million euros in international banks. She then took those fake documents to City National Bank where her request for a $22 million business loan was denied.
She wanted that money so she could open an art club in Soho. Although the bank didn't give her the full $22 million, they did give her $100,000. She used that money as security for another loan from a different investment group. Basically, Anna was borrowing money all over the place.
Always Taking Selfies
All of the pictures in this article come directly from Anna's Instagram account which is still very much accessible. Anna was indicted on six felony counts and one misdemeanor charge, including grand larceny.
While she was awaiting trial, she somehow managed to post a selfie on Instagram from jail. Who knows how Anna got access to a phone, but I have to say I'm not surprised. Of course, a girl who can steal hundreds of thousands of dollars can sneakily post a selfie.
Skipping Court
In 2017, a judge ordered for Anna's arrest. Two NYPD officers were at Manhattan Criminal Court to speak to Sorokin, who was twenty-six-years-old at the time. She was supposed to appear in court to face theft charges.
Her lawyer, Todd Spodek, told the court, "my client, unfortunately, is not here. I've reached out to her but have not heard back." This mistake would come back to haunt Anna. It could be one of the reasons that her request for a shorter maximum sentence was denied.
Six Counts of Grand Larceny
Anna Delvey could only scam her way out of court for so long. In late 2017, she was indicted on six counts of grand larceny as well as attempted grand larceny. Her arrest put an end to her five-year streak in which she scammed upward of $275,000 out of banks, investors, and friends.
At her sentencing, Judge Kiesel had some harsh words for Delvey, saying, "I see no remorse... She seems more concerned about who is going to play her in the movie than what she's done to the people she allegedly took advantage of."
Red Flags Everywhere
A lot of the people who interacted with Anna described her as a difficult person. Employees at the hotels she was staying at described her as annoying and ill-mannered. She regularly bribed hotel and restaurant employees with one hundred dollar bills.
Anna was literally buying friends at this point. She was so well connected because she was able to give people cash whenever she felt it necessary. People thought that Anna was rich because it was so easy for her to give away money. That made people trust her claims and eventually lend her money.
Not From Germany
Anna lived in Russia until she was sixteen. Her German language skills aren't as good as her Russian language skills. While she was in Germany, her classmates described her as a quiet girl who had a difficult time with the German language.
People were ignoring major clues that Anna wasn't who she claimed to be. If they had paid more attention to her accent or to her language abilities, maybe they wouldn't have been scammed so easily.
Apparently, Jail Isn't So Bad
Although Anna is used to spending time at fancy New York hotels, she says that her time at Rikers Island hasn't been that bad. Anna said, "People seem to think it's horrible, but I see it as like, this sociological experiment … This one girl, she’s been stealing other people’s identities. I didn’t realize it was so easy."
She also mentioned being fascinated by the murderers she's locked up with. Let's just hope that these criminals aren't giving Anna any more creative ideas.
Scamming The Fyre Festival Founder
Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland has been accused of being involved in some scams of his own. Apparently, Anna asked to stay at the headquarters of a suspicious credit card company that McFarland owned.
She was only supposed to stay for a few days, but she actually refused to leave the Soho loft for months. McFarland was too "polite and nonconfrontational" to ask her to leave. He hinted that it was time for her to go, but when it came down to it, he couldn't kick her out. She ended up staying there for four months.
Shonda Rhimes' Involvement
You may have heard that Rhimes and Shondaland are leaving ABC after fifteen years of collaboration. Shonda is going to remain involved with her current ABC shows, Grey's Anatomy, For The People, Station 19, and How To Get Away With Murder.
After Shonda read an article about Anna Delvey in New York magazine titled "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People," she became very interested in her story. As of now, Rhimes has decided to write a series based on Delvey's crimes for Netflix.
She Didn't Look Rich
Some fashion experts think that Anna's modest taste in clothes helped her convince people that she was really wealthy. Anna wore high-end brands, but not super high-end brands. She had a Supreme hoodie and a nice leather jacket, but her wardrobe cost nothing compared to the wardrobes of some of her famous friends.
Anna looked like she was so rich, she could afford to be careless about fashion. Her lax style made people believe that she was comfortable in their social circle.
Rich On Instagram
Although Anna didn't show off her wealth through her clothes, she did show off her wealth on Instagram. She posted pictures of herself in different tropical locations. She has photos of high-brow art, cars, hotels, and food.
From the outside, it looks like Anna was a cultured, well-connected rich girl with a lot of time on her hands. Her pictures are well composed and not overly ostentatious, although they do suggest a certain kind of lifestyle. Anna's Instagram was carefully curated to reflect her self-constructed image.
Her Hair Gave Her Away
Haircuts and dye jobs can be expensive, especially at high-end salons. Maintaining a mane can also be really time-consuming. People who are actually rich can take the time to get regular blowouts and keratin treatments. Yeah, these hair treatments look good, but they also give the idle rich something to do with their time.
Anna didn't have much free time. She was too busy scamming and waiting for wire transfers. She didn't actually have the money to be bored all the time. Her hair always looked like she wasn't taking care of it.
Nobody Stopped Her
One of the big questions about this case is how did Anna keep up her scamming efforts for so long? She was ripping through money pretty quickly. The reason authorities didn't catch her sooner wasn't that she was a Catch Me If You Can level scammer. She wasn't even that good at lying.
Basically, she played people and banks against each other. She used the credibility she got from being associated with banks and rich people to boost her reputation. Ultimately, her debts caught up to her, and so did the police.
What's The Lesson?
In today's social media climate, looking rich and popular is just as good as being rich and popular. Anna took a thing that we all do online and tried to make it work in real life. We all embellish our lives on Instagram. We post our highlight reels, not our bloopers or deleted scenes. We make it look like we have more, do more, and spend more.
It's no wonder that so many people fell for Anna's act. We've become accustomed to lying. The line between reality and fantasy has been blurred.
A New Kind Of Narcissism
This is the most recent post on Anna's Instagram feed. Apparently, she will not be accepting any visitors while she's in prison— at least for now. You could write to her if you want, though.
I'm not sure why anybody would want to write to her. I guess she thinks she's still rich and popular, or she thinks that people are still interested in her story. On some level, we are still interested. We'll probably watch the Netflix show and we'll form our own opinions about Anna's illegal activity.
