Russian-speaking swindler in the USA and a savior from all diseases: the most famous scammers of our time

How often do you dream of a beautiful and rich life, looking at posts on social networks? Did you know that many of these famous bloggers dream about it as much as you do, but they just decided to "create" such a life for themselves on the Internet. Moreover, sometimes such falsehood allows you to cheat not only in social networks, but also in life. Edition Esquire told the stories of three swindlers who, through deception and pretense, managed to convince everyone of their wealth and steal thousands and millions of dollars.

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In his book, Andy Warhol once wrote that in the United States, if you want to live really well, you need either money or a sense of style.

“Everything is here, and you can get a cornucopia of it, either by buying it or convincing people to let you in for free because you look brilliant and people want to communicate with you. Every evening I see the same chic poor people at New York parties,” the author wrote.

And this quote, just as opportunely can be applied to several swindlers who proved that the attributes of success are much more important for society than real achievements.

Elizabeth Holmes

At 19, Elizabeth Holmes came to Silicon Valley with a startup called Theranos. This project promised to be a revolution in the world of medicine, because according to the plan, it will be possible to identify hundreds of diseases on the basis of just a couple of drops of blood from a finger instead of outdated medical tests.

In the first year alone, investors invested more than $ 90 million in the project. Holmes herself adorned magazine covers everywhere and was considered the youngest self-made billionaire on the planet. Every now and then called her the rising star of Silicon Valley.

There were American celebrities on the board of directors of Theranos: two former secretaries of state - George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, former head of the US Department of Defense William Perry. The company's investors included publisher and businessman Rupert Murdoch and billionaire Betsy Devos.

The swindler herself also believed that she would revolutionize diagnostics. But in 2015, The Wall Street Journal published a revealing article by John Carreiro. It became known that the technology did not work, analyzes were carried out on the equipment of competitors, and the startup itself and the entire campaign turned out to be a “soap bubble”. Holmes herself did not admit her failure to the last.

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Recently, the US Securities Commission ordered Holmes to pay a $ 500 fine, return $ 18,9 million worth of Theranos shares and cede his voting rights on the company's board of directors. Now the pseudo-entrepreneur and her former deputy face a trial. They are accused of conspiracy to cheat. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a multimillion-dollar fine.

Billy McFarland

The organizer of the "worst festival in history" Billy McFarland began his "career" as a con artist at the age of 18. He created his own map of Magnises. He introduced it as a membership card for an elite club for millennials. According to him, the cardholder had to open the way to better concerts and parties with the participation of celebrities.

McFarland believed, and was right, that millennials want exclusivity and luxury parties, not discounts and free miles from airlines. He sold his cards for as little as $ 250 a year. In return, he promised to meet with other wealthy people, businessmen and artists. The club consisted of 100 thousand people, and McFarland earned his first $ 2 million from contributions.

However, very quickly the Magnises members lost access to everything. Bookings for concerts and parties were unavailable, and already promised parties were canceled at the last minute. In the image and likeness of the first scam, McFarland built all the others - creating the impression of unity and the appearance of success.

In 2017, a scammer began selling tickets for the Fyre Fest in the Bahamas. It was described as an unprecedented celebration of luxury and fun amid paradisiacal landscapes. At one time on Instagram, this festival was advertised by Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid.

To maintain the image, McFarland, along with rapper Jeffrey Atkins (Ja Rule), defiantly squandered money and handed out pathetic interviews. Most of the tickets were sold - their cost ranged from $ 1,5 thousand to $ 250 thousand.

But when visitors did not find any festival in the Bahamas, the man became interested in the FBI.

As a result, it turned out that his company Fyre Media in 2016 earned only $ 60 thousand, despite the fact that the swindler himself stated that the amounts were in the millions. McFarland's outright lies about his own income and close contacts with the stars were able to convince investors to give him $ 27 million.

He misled them, including information about the alleged upcoming sale of Magnises for $ 35-40 million and that rapper Drake would be one of the headliners of the festival, although he did not give his consent to participate and did not even conduct any negotiations.

As a result, the organizer of the "worst festival in history" was thundered into jail for 6 years for fraud.

Anna Sorokina-Delvi

This girl came to New York out of nowhere. She settled in one of the best hotels in the city and every day spent huge sums on entertainment, and also told everyone that she was planning to open an art center in Manhattan. She convinced those around her that she was a “rich heiress” in a German family. In fact, she was the daughter of a Russian immigrant and the owner of a tiny heating and cooling equipment business.

She quickly realized that for her scam to succeed, she needed to gain the trust of the upper class in New York to help her "create" an art center.

Anna even hired a team of assistants, met with restaurateurs, eminent realtors and entrepreneurs who are confident that a wealthy German family and a $ 60 million trust fund are behind her.

She asked for a modest $ 25 million investment and said that she had already invested her $ 25 million. Under this pretext, she borrowed against the security of funds allegedly stored in a Swiss bank.

After the success, Anna began to spend money with frantic zeal. Her hotel room in Soho was littered with Acne and Supreme bags, and she tipped the porters and the concierge each $ 100. In the evenings, she hosted large dinners with CEOs, artists, athletes, and celebrities. Soon Delvi was everywhere, she was known and called to the most fashionable parties in the city.

“She managed to get to all the right places,” recalled one acquaintance who met Anna in 2015 at a party thrown by the startup tycoon in Berlin. "She was wearing very fashionable clothes, someone mentioned that she flew in on a private jet."

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In an interview, she admitted that she never aspired to be a socialite party girl, all her meetings in restaurants were work meetings. Most of all, she wanted everyone to believe that her plans to create the Anna Delvi Foundation were real. Still, she held all these negotiations and meetings, sent hundreds of emails, ordered building materials for the future art center, because she believed that this would really happen.

She also admitted that she was upset that during the trial, the district attorney portrayed her as a greedy idiot who embarked on a complex scam in order to simply spend more in restaurants and boutiques.

“If I really wanted money, I would have found easier, faster ways to get it,” Delvi said in the courtroom. - I had, as it seemed to me, a great team, and I had fun. Of course, I could have done a few things wrong, which does not detract from the hundreds of things I did right. "

Now the fraudster spent 4 years in prison for stealing more than $ 200 thousand and trying to get a loan of $ 22 million.

"Pretend until you get it"

These and other similar scams are carried out under the motto Fake it till you make it. Social networks have forever changed the perception of fame and success: it is enough to post a photo with a smile in Bali, even if you are depressed and in debt, and Bali in life exists only as a photo wallpaper.

Now success is considered performance—demonstration and self-presentation. If a blogger says that he is rich and shows expensive cars, the audience believes him. In the world of social networks there is no division between truth and lies. It was thanks to this that such scams were possible.

And most likely all three will go down in history as characters of popular culture, and not as outstanding swindlers. HBO has already released the documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley about Elizabeth Holmes, a full-length Hollywood movie about the Theranos scam will be released soon, where Holmes will play Jennifer Lawrence. McFarland's story and the Fyre Festival scam is the basis for two documentaries released this spring on Netflix and Hulu.

What do they have in common

It would seem that such different people and such different scams have nothing in common. Nevertheless, it is possible to find common ground.

The first thing we can highlight is the scale of the scam; usually scammers are much less enterprising and inventive. Immediately they managed to deceive almost the whole world. Another distinctive feature is publicity - they carried out their schemes in plain sight and attracted maximum attention.

Also, all three are united by the constant display of luxury and wealth. And while boasting about your wealth is not considered very good, still in the era of social networks, this is exactly what people are blown about.

Finally, all three were united by a sincere belief that if they pretended long enough, everything would work out. Even if you have already been exposed and are about to go to jail, you need to play your part to the end.

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We can say that the motto Fake it till you make it is the flip side of self-made. In this case, consumers no longer need history and facts, they just need a pretty picture. And what is a few years in prison if a person is remembered for decades?

We are all a little the same swindlers

Today, almost every user of any social network can be considered the same swindler - with the exception of millions of accounts. No one shows real life on social networks; photoshop and a forced smile have become an interesting reality. Really, why strive for something if you can draw it.

For example, blogger Anna Belis has been photoshopping herself as a top model for years, faking Vogue posts and a Models.com profile. She convinced subscribers that she collaborated with YSL, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Tous, Bvlgari, Calzedonia. This year, shortly before the publication in Russia of her book “You Can Too” about the path in the modeling business, it turned out that her modeling past was a fake, and the photo sessions for famous brands were drawn in Photoshop.

But the British blogger Byron Denton decided to show that this can be an easy way to gain popularity, for the sake of a joke, of course. He showed that the easiest way to become famous is to paint yourself in Photoshop a beautiful life with private jets and luxury clothes and put it out for everyone to see.

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