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It Can Cost Nearly Half A Million Dollars A Year To Be A New York Socialite

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Socialites tinsley mortimer and olivia palermo

According to The New York Times, it takes a lot of work (plus a whole lot of money) to be a successful New York socialite.

Ignoring real estate, vacations, shopping sprees, and pets, Times reporter Ruth La Ferla set out to answer how much it costs to live the life of a socialite on the society circuit.

In a handy rundown, she calculated the expenses of two archetypal socialites: One who has been on the scene for years, and another who is just starting to climb the social ladder.

The Times estimates that Bea Grande — the older, more experienced fictional socialite — spends $455,450 each year prepping herself for charity events: $3,000 for a personal stylist, $120,000 for a publicist, $100,000 for wardrobe, and $200,000 for the tickets.

The fictional Grande also spends $7,500 on at-home hair and make up styling, $18,000 on a personal trainer, and $5,700 yearly for Botox and glycolic peels.

Serena Goodsense, the younger fictional socialite, spends an estimated $98,645 each year. Instead of a car service, she would take a taxi, and instead of a personal trainer, she has an annual gym membership at a posh gym.

And though she spends virtually the same amount as Grande on Botox and chemical peels, she saves money with cheaper make up, hair cuts, and by buying designer gowns off the rack or borrowing them for a night.

However, there is a price socialites pay for being a Serena Goodsense and cutting corners. "We tee-hee about those girls behind their backs," real socialite Natalie Leeds Leventhal confessed to La Ferla.

Read all about the fabulous lives of society women here.

SEE ALSO: How To Live Like A Modern Day Great Gatsby

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THE BILLIONAIRES' SOCIAL CALENDAR

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Want to rub shoulders with a billionaire? Your best bet is to attend one of the cultural, sporting, or business events where the super-rich flock each year.

Wealth-X and UBS included a "billionaires' social calendar" in their recent Billionaire Census. We added a bit more information and created a handy version that you can print and hang on your refrigerator.

Grab your derby hat, ball gown, and checkbook, and mark down these dates.

BI_graphics_billionairesCalendar (1)

SEE ALSO: The World's Most Expensive Yachts (And The Billionaires Who Own Them)

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Manhattan Socialites Accused Of Mistreating Their Nanny Are Now Trapped In Italy

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portofino italy villa

Last year, a lawsuit alleging that a wealthy Upper East Side couple kept a Chilean nanny as a “virtual slave” for three months made waves around the internet.

In it, Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garnica claimed she was physically abused by her employers’ three children, and accused the family of human trafficking.

The lawsuit was dismissed after “rampant inconsistencies” emerged during her deposition, many of which backtracked from her original allegations, though the family did pay her about $6,000 in back wages, writes Michael Wilson in the New York Times.

Despite the court's dismissal, the couple, Chilean aristocrats Malu Custer Edwards and Micky Hurley, and their three children, are stuck in Italy after the US refused to let them back into the country following a summer vacation.

The Times reports that the family’s August vacation was only supposed to last three weeks, but they were refused re-entry by the State Department because of Garnica’s now-dismissed allegations. 

The family was reportedly alerted while on vacation that Edwards needed to renew her student visa to re-enter the US, but the request was denied by the United States Consulate, which stated that Edwards “had been untruthful on her application to renew the visa by failing to report having engaged in human trafficking,” according to The Times.

Writes Wilson:

“'Well, what’s so bad about Italy?'” Ms. Edwards asked, repeating a question she has heard from friends. “Well, just wait until you are anywhere in the world, and you think you’ll be there a couple of weeks, and then be told you can’t go back to where your life is.”

Garnica’s lawsuit against the Edwards and Hurley claimed that the socialites only gave her $800 a month to work 12-hour days without any days off. 

She also alleged Edwards and Hurley took her passport, kept her in the apartment without proper food or her medication for hypertension, and that she was abused by the couple’s three children.

The lawsuit was dropped by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Manhattan’s Federal Court after Garnica revealed in her deposition that she was allowed to come and go from the apartment at her leisure, was given food, and that the source of the physical abuse was the couple’s three-year-old toddler who was no taller than the nanny’s waist.

Edwards and Hurley are currently appealing the visa denial.

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THE BILLIONAIRES' SOCIAL CALENDAR 2015

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Want to rub shoulders with a billionaire? Your best bet is to attend one of the cultural, sporting, or business events where the super-rich flock each year.

Wealth-X and UBS included a "billionaires' social calendar" in their recent Billionaire Census. We added a bit more information and created a handy version that you can print and hang on your refrigerator.

Grab your derby hat, ball gown, and checkbook, and mark down these dates.

BI_graphics_billionairesCalendar (1)

SEE ALSO: The World's Most Expensive Yachts (And The Billionaires Who Own Them)

Join the conversation about this story »

Ex-Girlfriend Of Man Accused Of Killing His Hedge Fund Father Says The Son 'Talked A Lot About His Dad'

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Thomas Gilbert

A former girlfriend of the man who has been accused of killing his hedge-fund-manager father told the New York Post that he often complained about his father being "hypercritical" of him.

Anna Rothschild, a divorcee who is in her mid-40s, said that 30-year-old socialite Thomas S. Gilbert Jr. said he "couldn't do anything right" in the eyes of his father, hedge fund manager Thomas S. Gilbert Sr.

"He talked a lot about his dad and how mean he was to him and how nothing was good enough," Rothschild told the Post.

Gilbert has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to the death of his 70-year-old father. The elder Gilbert was found dead with a gun wound to his head at his apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side on Sunday.

Police said there was some sort of argument about money between the father and son, and ABC News has reported that the father was considering no longer paying his son's rent and reducing his weekly allowance.

According to the Post, Gilbert's father was going to cut his allowance by $200. Gilbert Sr. had been subsidizing his son's lifestyle by paying for his son's $2,400-a-month Chelsea apartment and giving him a weekly allowance of $600, the Post's report said.

Rothschild, who said she dated Gilbert for a few months last year, called him a "loner" and said he wanted to start his own hedge fund but that his father would not help him.

In May, Gilbert — a graduate of The Buckley School, Deerfield Academy, and Princeton University — filed a form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission for his own hedge fund, Mameluke Capital Fund LP. It's unclear how many assets under management he had. 

Rothschild, who is described in her Facebook page bio as "one of most sought after socialites on the Upper East Side," told the Post that she last saw Gilbert around Christmas and that he seemed "totally normal."

The elder Gilbert was the founder of the long-short equity hedge fund Wainscott Capital Partners. Gilbert, who had more than 40 years of experience on Wall Street, opened the fund in 2011. He was described to Business Insider by a friend as a "very nice man." 

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New York socialite sentenced to 18 years for poisoning autistic son

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Gigi Jordan, a wealthy New York socialite who was convicted in 2014 of first-degree manslaughter for the 2010 killing of her 8-year-old autistic son in a posh Manhattan hotel room, appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for her sentencing hearing in New York May 28, 2015.  REUTERS/Mike Segar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A wealthy New York socialite was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday after being convicted of killing her young autistic son at a luxury Manhattan hotel room in 2010.

Gigi Jordan, 54, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in November after admitting that she administered an overdose of prescription pills to 8-year-old Jude Mirra at the posh Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue, using a crusher and syringe.

Jordan's attorneys argued throughout the two-month trial that she had killed the boy in an act of mercy to prevent the boy's biological father from sexually abusing him, a scenario that prosecutors said was based on fiction.

Judge Charles Solomon of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan handed down a sentence that was close to the maximum of 25 years in prison under New York guidelines, saying he was mystified by the mother's lack of remorse.

"It's very difficult for me to understand the defendant," Solomon said. "I certainly would think that I would hear something from the defendant expressing remorse about what she did - something."

In a 30-minute statement read to the court, Jordan appealed for leniency and again said she had been acting in her son's best interests.

"I love Jude more than anything in this world," the former pharmaceuticals executive and self-made millionaire said in a 30-minute statement. "I believe that he lived and died in unbelievable agony."

At her trial last year, the jury accepted the defense's claim that Jordan had acted under extreme emotional distress, finding her guilty of manslaughter rather than the top murder charge sought by prosecutors.

Even though Mirra was unable to express himself well, Jordan's attorneys argued, he had told his mother that he was being sexually abused by his father, Emil Tzekov.

Tzekov, a yoga instructor who became Jordan's second ex-husband, has denied the accusations.

Jordan said she feared she would be unable to protect her boy because her first husband, Philadelphia businessman Raymond Mirra Jr., planned to have her killed or institutionalized, and Tzekov would gain custody of her son.

Prosecutors argued that Jordan carefully planned the death of her son after traveling the country to find a cure for his autism. They said that Jordan killed her son because she could not accept that he was disabled and she could not fix his medical condition.

Outside of court, Jordan's attorney, Norman Siegel, expressed disappointment with the sentence and said Jordan would appeal.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Meet the wild-card Trump daughter no one is talking about

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tiffany trump

Donald Trump's other beautiful blond daughter, Tiffany, is all over Manhattan's social scene, but no one seems to be noticing.

Despite partying with the "Rich Kids of Instagram," interning at Vogue, dropping a pop single, and just being a Trump heir, the 21-year-old doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet.

The reason she has been able to fly so low under the radar is that, until recently, much of the news media had forgotten she even existed.

Tiffany grew up in California with mother Marla Maples, Donald Trump's second wife, and went to Calabasas' $31,205-a-year Viewpoint School. Maples has said Donald helped with school and other financials but she raised Tiffany as a single parent.

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Recently, Tiffany swapped coasts and moved closer to her dad to attend his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a senior. Though she put out a synthy pop song in 2011, she told interviewers from Oprah Winfrey's network that she really loved fashion design.

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In spring 2013, the Daily Mail reported that Ivanka Trump helped her half-sister score an internship at Vogue, and that Tiffany was going to work as early as 5:30 a.m. and "even got to have lunch with Anna Wintour." The New York Post's Page Six got wind of the youngest Trump daughter shortly after that, when she stepped out for a Halloween party at Manhattan's Boom Boom Room.

ej johnson tiffany trumpIn the few press clips you can find on Tiffany, she is often spotted with a group of wealthy young socialites called the "Rich Kids of Instagram." Some of her friends are Andrew Warren (son of a New York real-estate investor) Harry Brant and Peter Brant Jr. (sons of media mogul Peter Brant), Gaia Matisse (great-great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse), and EJ Johnson (son of Magic Johnson), most of whom attended Tiffany's 21st-birthday bash at Trump SoHo and a dance club called Up & Down in New York's Meatpacking District.

GettyImages 170829515This summer she has been hanging out in the Hamptons with Warren, attending his fashion-line debut at an upscale East Hampton boutique and following him to DuJour magazine CEO Jason Binn's annual Memorial Day soirée.

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It doesn't appear that her society friends and active social life have gotten in the way of her studies, though. According to her Instagram, she is juggling a new internship with Aeffe — the Italian fashion group that owns Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti, Moschino, and Pollini — and spending a lot of time in the library. The below photo was taken at Aeffa USA's Manhattan office and was tagged #internlife.

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Given that Wharton School grad Ivanka had a brief career as a runway model before getting down to business at The Trump Organization with her dad, Tiffany could very well follow the same trajectory, possibly even working for Ivanka's rapidly growing fashion and lifestyle brand.

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Or perhaps she'll keep working on her music and make a bid for pop stardom. Either way, it will be interesting to watch.

SEE ALSO: THE TRUMP 5: Meet the fabulous offspring of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump

SEE ALSO: DON'T FORGET: Business Insider is on Twitter

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NOW WATCH: You get a really long-winded answer when you ask Siri to tell you a story

The privileged lives of the real 'Rich Kids of Instagram' — including Tiffany Trump

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DuJour

Down a private drive in the Hamptons, past a sign that reads “Warren on the Cobb,” sits a sprawling clapboard house, complete with a sparkling baby-blue pool, monogrammed deck furniture and the pièce de résistance floating expectantly in the center of the pool: a giant inflatable swan.

It’s raining today, the second weekend of the summer, and the house is full.

The Ringleader: Andrew Warren

A Japanese camera crew has flown in to interview Andrew Warren, the 22-year-old grandson of fashion mogul David Warren.

The elder Warren made his name in the ’70s with the sort of prim and polished “social occasion” dresses that women bought at Bloomingdale’s and Saks.

The younger Warren is a budding fashion mogul himself, with a collection of edgy ready-to-wear pieces he launched in 2013 called Just Drew.

Though the reporter, whom Warren calls “like the Katie Couric of Japan,” is ostensibly here to talk about the line, her questions inevitably return to the topic of Warren’s friends, a young, beautiful, pedigreed group that appears throughout Warren’s widely followed Instagram account.


Warren is at once slighted and nonplussed. He knows his friends are interesting to strangers. He’s helped make them that way, casting them in his lookbooks and leveraging their equally famous names to a collective advantage with the help of social media.

If his Instagram feed feels art directed, that’s because it is.

Warren handpicks his crew — which at the moment includes Gaia Matisse, Kyra Kennedy, Reya Benitez and Tiffany Trump — as if putting together a jigsaw puzzle, “weeding out,” as he says, the ones who don’t fit in.

The photos they share on social media tell the story of an enviable set of lives intertwined, sipping rosé in infinity pools by day, sipping rosé on balconies overlooking the Marais by night — a picture-perfect posse of wealthy progeny.

And yet, Warren insists, they’re not all about popping bottles and digging into their trust funds. They have professional ambitions, too. In fact, it’s that shared desire to pave their own way and prove they’re not just spoiled brats with Birkins that connects this fivesome the most.

They can’t help it if, as Matisse says, they also happen to “look good on a swan.”


The Aspiring Actress: Gaia Matisse

Matisse, who met Warren in middle school, is the great-great-granddaughter of French artist Henri Matisse.

She sees broadcasting her daily escapades on social media as a strategy, rather than a brazen ego-feed. She’s an aspiring actress and model, and who knows? Perhaps the scantily clad selfies she shares with her 13,000 Instagram followers will upthrust her profile; score her the right agent; land her future movie roles. 

Despite her pedigree — her father, Alain Jacquet, who died in 2008, was also an artist — Matisse says a career as a painter was never in the cards for her. “Acting is my art form,” she professes, batting her blue-mascara-coated lashes.

She’s been working with “Bradley Cooper’s acting coach,” she points out, since she was 16. “I met her randomly when I was having dinner with Mickey Rourke,” she says. “I just need to get an agent now.”

Matisse insists that she didn’t grow up overindulged.

She went to public school in New York City and recounts stories of shopping with her mother for $15 sweatpants. “ ‘Matisse’ was never a thing,” she says, though she’s opted to go by her mother’s more famous last name. “Money was never talked about.” 


The Cool Girl: Reya Benitez 

Reya Benitez, the 23-year-old daughter of John “Jellybean” Benitez and a friend of Warren’s since high school, tells a similar story.

Her father was the resident DJ for Studio 54 and has produced tracks for Madonna and Whitney Houston. Benitez points out that she started hostessing at her mother’s restaurant, The Coffee Shop, when she was 13. These days, she works at a concierge management company but is toying with the idea of following in her father’s footsteps as a DJ.

She’s eagerly working to grow her social media handle, @ReyaBenitez, which currently has some 2,200 followers. “Social media lets [people] see who we are through what we do,” she says. “Everyone always says [my DJ name] should be Little Bean, but I want to create my own name without any help from my father. I don’t want to be overshadowed by him.”

Social media is, of course, what makes this generation of famous progeny different from its predecessors, both offering them opportunity and presenting a challenge. While it’s hard to imagine, say, Sofia Coppola posting figure-flaunting photos of herself to collect followers, maybe she would have, given the option.

For Warren and his crew, it’s hard not to harness the power of social media, now that it exists — especially when every day is as Instagram-worthy as it is for them. That said, there are plenty of people who accuse the group of flashing the wealth they did nothing to earn, and many have tried to turn their lives into something of a punch line. 

Warren’s feed is routinely pilfered for images that end up on @RichKidsofInstagram, an anonymous account that highlights the most obnoxious and rubbernecking-worthy posts from wealthy children on the Web. 

While this annoys Warren — it’s not about being showy; it’s just how life is and besides, he says, “I just really like taking photos”— he acknowledges that the attention is free, and not unwanted, promotion for his brand.

He has vast, lofty goals for Just Drew (“I could see it becoming something like a Givenchy,” he says) that he thinks social media will help him achieve. And it very well might: Many of his regrammed photos feature the girls in Just Drew, posed alongside the designer. Over the last year, Warren’s line has expanded into two boutiques. He’s currently in talks with international distributors, an accomplishment he chalks up to relationships he’s cultivated. “Everyone knows Andrew. All his friends come in and buy,” says Jeff Goldstein, the owner of Blue & Cream, the first boutique to carry his line.

A photo posted by Gaïa Matisse (@gmatisse) on


The Party Girl: Kyra Kennedy

Kyra Kennedy, the 19-year-old daughter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the late Mary Kathleen Richardson, was scooped up by Warren in Aspen last December and quickly became a fixture of Warren’s feed, appearing in photos at nightclubs and in hotel suites.

Kennedy experienced her first bout of infamy earlier this year after a newspaper article claimed she attempted to use her older half-sister’s passport to get into a nightclub.

When she was denied, she allegedly responded, “I’m a Kennedy. Google me.” (The drama “was basically fabricated,” she says.) Still, the embarrassment kept her from attending an internship for two weeks. “I couldn’t bear to see anyone,” she says. “My dad said, ‘I’m sorry, but hiding is not the right thing to do. You just have to face the truth and be like, this is not me. This is not true.’ ” 

You could say she’s stopped hiding. Kennedy’s Instagram profile states, “I’m a mess but I make it look so good,” and indeed, in it, life looks pretty good.

There she is wearing Marni in Montauk, or cozying up to actress Bella Thorne at the Chateau Marmont. Her dad has called and requested that she “clean up her Instagram,” but as far as Kennedy, a freshman at FIT, is concerned, she’s just having a good time. And Warren would have to agree. “We have fun with it,” he says. “If people have something negative to say, we’re not asking them to follow in the first place.

The Newcomer: Tiffany Trump 

Warren met Tiffany Trump, the Donald’s second youngest and only child with ex-wife Marla Maples, when they were three years old.

A 21-year-old junior at UPenn, her father’s alma mater, she has a toothy, Pollyanna smile and a Southern gentility, using expressions like “goodness gracious” that belie the steady stream of pouty selfies that fill her Instagram account.

Still, she’s doing something right — or at least crowd-pleasing. She’s got 30,000 followers, even if her dad is not among them. “I don’t know what it’s like to have a typical father figure,” says Trump. “He’s not the dad who’s going to take me to the beach and go swimming, but he’s such a motivational person.” She’s debating whether to go to business school or law school after college.

 

It’s Saturday night in Southampton — the perfect excuse for a dinner party. Warren has invited 25 friends to a buzzy East End restaurant in celebration of his successful Just Drew trunk show, which took place earlier today at a local boutique.

A society photographer is snapping away as bottles of rosé float across the table. “Wait!” Matisse yells to the lensman. She grabs the hand of Peter Brant Jr., son of billionaire businessman Peter M. Brant, and points to a decorative hedge. “This is a great picture. Take this!” She dips her head back and falls, dramatically, into a bush.

While there may be no such thing as bad press, fast fame isn’t necessarily on the agenda. Warren and the girls have been approached by producers interested in building a reality show around them, but they’ve turned up their collective noses at the idea. “I think that it’s just selling yourself, and it’s not an attractive look. I don’t believe in it,” Kennedy sniffs. Adds Trump, “You have to think long term. It’s easy money, but …” 

“But,” interjects Matisse, “it conflicts so much with all of our different personal goals. Besides, it’s not about money or fame, it’s about our friendships. It’s about us being amazing people and loving each other. That’s what it’s about.”

SEE ALSO: Incredible pictures give a totally unexpected perspective into how the 1% lives

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NOW WATCH: Forget Ivanka — here’s the Trump daughter nobody’s talking about


The 'Insta-famous' sons and daughters of New York's elite let me into their circle — here's what it was like

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Andrew Warren Rich Kids of Instagram

Take a look at the "Rich Kids of Instagram" blog and you'll see over-the-top photos of luxury bags, massive bottles of Dom Perignon, and flights on private jets. The photos are posted by an anonymous source, who wades through Instagram to find photos of young people flaunting their wealth. 

But if you ask some of the so-called "rich kids" featured on the site, their lives aren't like that all of the time. 

"We just live a certain lifestyle and people perceive it in their own way," Reya Benitez, daughter of legendary Studio 54 DJ John "Jellybean" Benitez, said to Business Insider. "We're not flashing things." 

Benitez has more than 3,000 followers on Instagram. Gaia Matisse, great-great-granddaughter of French painter Henri Matisse and daughter of the late, famed pop artist Alain Jacquet, has more than 15,700 Instagram followers.

"Any picture can be turned into something else," Gaia said. "Our Instagrams are just fun photos of us having fun. There may be a helicopter in the background, but that's just us." 

But according to aspiring fashion designer Andrew Warren, the ringleader and self-proclaimed "Kris Jenner of the group"— which also includes Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s daughter Kyra, Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany, Magic Johnson's son EJ, and actress Bella Thorne — his friends are headed towards big things of their own.

"I try to push everyone toward what they actually want to do," he said. Andrew has more than 34,000 Instagram followers. "My friends are all really different but talented at different things." 

We spent a day with Andrew, Gaia, and Reya to get a glimpse at what life as an elite 20-something New Yorker is really like. 

SEE ALSO: We flew to the Hamptons like the 1% with Blade, an 'Uber-for-helicopters' startup — and it was as fabulous as it sounds

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We met Andrew at his apartment, located in a stunning, two-towered co-op building that fronts Central Park. Built in the 1930s, the building was at different times home to Marc Jacobs, Conan O'Brien, and members of the Genovese crime family.



His family occupies a second-floor spread here, where Andrew has lived his whole life. His dad is a prominent real estate investor, and his grandfather was a fashion tycoon. "He passed before I met him," Andrew said. "There's a statue in the Garment District of a man sewing, and his name is the last one on it."



Andrew has an interest in fashion, too. He recently launched his own clothing line called Just Drew, available online and at Blue & Cream, a boutique with locations in Manhattan and the Hamptons. He was originally asked to do a T-shirt line with a friend, but they lost touch.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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A woman posing as a German heiress reportedly scammed people out of at least $270,000 — and the story is so wild it should be a movie

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anna delvey

  • Russian-born Anna Sorokin reportedly tricked hotels, businesses, and friends out of at least $270,000 — and she's now facing 15 years in prison.
  • New York Magazine delved into the wild story of how the 27-year-old allegedly pretended to be a German heiress to infiltrate the New York City party scene and rack up exorbitant bills.
  • She is also accused of scamming a friend out of $62,000 for a luxurious trip to Morocco.
  • A woman who knows Sorokin told INSIDER she thinks Sorokin is a good person who needs some help, calling her "a genius" and "the most giving person I've ever met."


Depending on how you look at it, you might see Anna Sorokin as either an entitled wannabe socialite or a criminal mastermind — or maybe a bit of both.

Sorokin, who used the name Anna Delvey to pose as a German heiress, is said to have bought designer clothing, tipped with $100 bills, racked up bills at luxury hotels and expensive restaurants — and she either convinced others to foot the bills or just didn't pay them, as New York Magazine reported. She allegedly scammed businesses and a friend out of at least $270,000.

"She screwed basically everyone," an acquaintance of Sorokin in Berlin told the magazine.

fly thru twice

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Apr 18, 2017 at 6:03pm PDT on

The 27-year-old is being held without bail at Rikers Island while she faces up to 15 years behind bars, according to The New York Post — and the story of her allegedly scamming her way into the company of the New York City party scene has shocked and fascinated the internet.

Sorokin faces charges of grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services, according to the New York Daily News.

🎂🍾🎉💃🏻

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Jan 23, 2016 at 9:46am PST on

Sorokin allegedly swindled a friend out of $62,000 for a lavish trip to Morocco and convinced another friend to buy her plane tickets to Venice. 

For more details on the story, see the full, wild article in New York Magazine.

Afternoon Bellinis #VENICE 🌸 with @michaelxufuhuang

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on May 9, 2015 at 5:58am PDT on

Sorokin is said to have convinced friends she was rich by acting rich.

"She's so funny," Neffatari Davis, who was the concierge at the Manhattan hotel where Sorokin lived for months, told INSIDER. "People are saying [her story] should be a movie — because her personality is a movie."

Davis said Sorokin would come hang out with her at the concierge desk every day, talking about the hottest restaurants and healthy places to eat around the city. She said people would fight to take deliveries up to Sorokin's room because she always tipped with a $100 bill.

Happy Birthday Me!

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Jan 23, 2016 at 12:24am PST on

"The way Anna spent money, it was like she couldn’t get rid of it fast enough," Jessica Pressler wrote in New York Magazine. "Her room was overflowing with shopping bags from Acne and Supreme, and in between meetings, she’d invite [Davis] to foot massages, cryotherapy, manicures..."

Davis told INSIDER that she got the impression the woman had no idea what it was like to not be rich.

#tb this summer 💁🏼

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Nov 2, 2016 at 4:46pm PDT on

"She convinced me she's unaware of 'broke tendencies,'" Davis said. "What I mean by 'broke tendencies' is she was shocked when she heard people would skip lunch, or anything that regular people would go through, Anna had no idea about — is what she made me feel like. It was almost like she was friends with me and I was educating her."

Sorokin told friends that her father ran a business producing solar panels in Germany.

She said she had interned for the fashion magazine Purple in Paris, and she had photos with its editor on her Instagram to back it up.

@ozpurple

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Jun 30, 2013 at 6:43am PDT on

Her plan, as she told people, was to start an "arts club" in Manhattan called The Anna Delvey Foundation, which would include pop-up shops and installations, three restaurants, a juice bar, and a German baker, according to New York Magazine.

She reportedly gave forged documentation to banks claiming she had a net worth of $60 million. 

Evidence of her lavish antics fill her Instagram. 

Sorokin's Instagram account is littered with photos of fancy dinners, views from luxury hotels, and her travels to destinations such as Venice, Berlin, and Las Vegas.

Tonight's dinner #VENICE @michaelxufuhuang

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on May 8, 2015 at 3:29pm PDT on

#VENICE

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on May 11, 2015 at 4:42am PDT on

#BASEL

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Jun 15, 2015 at 9:28pm PDT on

This view for lunch #BERLIN

A post shared by AD (@annadlvv) on Apr 23, 2015 at 5:53am PDT on

@fendi dinner on 83rd fl at the new #one57 #nyfw

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She's now facing charges of grand larceny and theft of services.

In October, Sorokin pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, according to The Post.

"She's born in Russia and has not a cent to her name as far as we can determine," assistant district attorney Catherine McCaw said.

According to the Daily News, Sorokin's lawyer argued in court that her dealings with banks were completely honest.

"It appears that she had every intention to complete legitimate business transactions," he said.

Sorokin said she just wanted "to be taken seriously" and start her business.

Sorokin pushed back against The Post calling her "a wannabe socialite."

"I was never trying to be a socialite," she told New York Magazine. "I had dinners, but they were work dinners. I wanted to be taken seriously." 

Davis echoed this characterization, saying Sorokin didn't want to be a socialite — she just wanted to be rich. 

Davis, who called herself Sorokin's closest friend in New York, told INSIDER that she doesn't think Sorokin is actually a bad person and that she is, in fact, "a genius" for pulling everything off. 

Sorokin's friend said she was "the most giving person I've ever met in my life."

"She was the most giving person I've ever met in my life, which is ironic," Davis told INSIDER. "But she gave to everyone. And this was before Uber had added the tip option to the app, so she would just give physical cash to everyone. If you opened the door, if you were nice, if she saw you in the street, if you were homeless. Everyone received money."

#NEWYORK

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Davis, who is a filmmaker, said she plans to go visit her friend at Rikers, which Sorokin told New York Magazine is not actually that bad.

"This place is not that bad at all actually," Sorokin told New York Magazine. "People seem to think it's horrible, but I see it as like, this sociological experiment."

People have a lot of feelings about this story.

Sorokin's story was met with disdain by some, but many people on Twitter reacted with reluctant admiration.

Many are saying that the story should be made into a movie.

Time will tell what will happen to Sorokin now that she's facing jail time — one person posited that she could even be at next year's Met Gala.

Pressler, who wrote the New York Magazine article and interviewed Sorokin several times at Rikers, had her own take on it. 

"Anna looked at the soul of New York and recognized that if you distract people with shiny objects, with large wads of cash, with the indicia of wealth, if you show them the money, they will be virtually unable to see anything else," Pressler wrote. "And the thing was: It was so easy."

Read the full story at New York Magazine.

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NOW WATCH: This is how moveable prosthetic covers are made for bionic limbs

Even 'Russia's Answer To Paris Hilton' Thinks Putin Needs To Quit

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Kseniya Sobchak Russia

Meet Kseniya Sobchak, the daughter of a prominent politician with ties to Putin, famous for hosting a popular tv show in Russia and christened "Russia's answer to Paris Hilton" by the New York Times.

There's a funny thing about Russia's premier "It Girl": Vladimir Putin got his start in politics working with her father, Anatoly Sobchak, St Petersberg's first democratically elected mayor. "His role in the establishment of a new Russia was colossal," Putin said just 2 years ago on the tenth anniversary of Anatoly's death.

Putin's love for his mentor was so great that he helped him escape from the country in 1998 to escape corruption charges— a reward, perhaps, for helping to shape the clan that went on to create "Putinism".

Unfortunately for Putin, Kseniya isn't her father.

At the huge anti-Kremlin rallies in Moscow on December 24, Kseniya appeared. "I’m Kseniya Sobchak and I have something to lose,” she told the crowd.

As Olaf Koens at the Moscow News notes, she may be the most important Putin critic yet. Just two years ago in an interview with the Guardian she refused to mention Putin, saying only "[Putin] did a lot for my family then and I am proud he was a friend of my father." At the time some were even announcing that her political ambitions were was a Kremlin-backed ploy.

Now that's changed.

“[Putin is] not a bad person,” she recently said on Russian TV. “Do you know what the problem is with the opposition? Everyone’s trying now to find a new Putin. But what we actually need is a new system in which there can be no Putin.”

That even people who appear to have profited so much from Putin's Russia seem willing to denounce it is a big step — and she knows it.

“Everybody now knows I’m on the side of the protesters, and the Western press will probably write that it’s an important sign if even a society girl like myself joins the movement.”

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A New York Socialite Died After Collapsing At A Fashion Show Last Night

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zelda kaplan, socialite, new york fashion week

New York socialite Zelda Kaplan collapsed last night at the Joanna Mastroianni fashion show at Lincoln Center.

The 95-year-old was carried out of the show and later pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital, according to the Associated Press.

The show was beginning when Kaplan, who was famous for her love of Manhattan's nightlife and arts scene, collapsed in her front-row seat.

"I was sitting right next to her. She flopped over in my lap," said Ruth Finley, publisher of the Fashion Calendar, told the AP. "The show was just starting. I thought she fainted. Two men carried her out."

Kaplan was a fixture of the New York nightlife scene, attending art openings and clubs "with people young enough to be her great-grandchildren," the AP wrote. She was a world traveler and supporter of international women's rights.

A 2003 HBO documentary titled “Her Name Is Zelda,” followed Kaplan's life and her journey from housewife to champagne-sipping night owl who could keep partying with most 20-year-olds.

Update: We just recieved a statement from the designer:

“We are deeply saddened to lose Zelda, such an icon of the fashion community. Zelda has been someone I have known and respected over the years. I truly admired her for her individuality and incredible spirit. She had such a love of life and believed in living everyday to its fullest. She will be sorely missed and my heartfelt condolences to her family.”

DON'T MISS: The Hottest Looks From The Fashion Week Runways Last Weekend >

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This Is What America's Socialites Look Like

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american beauty bookSocialite Claiborne Swanson Frank, a Vogue alumna, has released a new book called "American Beauty," that has 100 portraits of other socialites.

The title is tasteful, but the book has been dubbed "The Yearbook" among New York's social elite and is being buzzed about for who made it inand who didn't, says Page Six.

The book, published by Assouline, includes society A-listers like Aerin Lauder, Alina Cho, Georgina Bloomberg, Lauren Santo Domingo, Bettina Prentice, Arden Wohl, and Solange Knowles.

The book is on sale for $75 and can be purchased at Assouline boutiques or at Assouline.com.

SOLANGE KNOWLES: She may be best known as Beyonce's younger sister, but Solange is a mother, singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ.



LESLEY M. M. BLUME: Best known for her book "Let's Bring Back," Blume is a journalist and social commenter. She also wrote the foreword to "American Beauty."



JOHANNA HILLMAN: The Toronto native is a model turned fashion editor who currently works as the senior fashion market editor at Harper's Bazaar.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Wealthy Socialite Accused Of Selling Child Porn From Her Dallas Mansion

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erika susan perdue dallas woman accussed of selling child porn

A wealthy Dallas woman has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly selling child pornography from her home for more than 12 years, according to The New York Daily News.

Erika Susan Perdue, 41, a housewife who lives in a $1.4 million mansion, is accused of selling child porn during the day since 1999 while her husband worked as an attorney, according to the Daily News.

FBI agents raided Perdue's home on April 10 and found images of adults sexually abusing children, according to Fox KDFW. The agents seized a computer and a hard drive in the raid.

Agents had been tracking Perdue since January of this year.

Perdue allegedly collected so many photos and videos that she "couldn't remember where they all came from," The Daily News reported, based on court documents.

Perdue's mansion sits across the street from Coffee Park and a child's playground area, but investigators do not believe the images are of local children.

DON'T MISS: That Fake Coach Bag You Bought In Chinatown Could Be Funding A Terrorist Group >

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Daughter Of Former NYC Budget Director Dies After Being Found With Huge Gash On Chin

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carlisle brigham

A 29-year-old woman believed to be hiding from a failed marriage died after being found with a massive gash on her chin on the second-floor landing of a Lower East Side apartment building.

Police initially believed Carlisle Brigham, daughter of New York City's former budget director James Brigham, was murdered but are now considering the possibility her death was an accident, The New York Daily News reported Monday.

“I knew something had gone seriously wrong when I flipped her over,” Mizanur Rahman, a neighbor who found Brigham, told the Daily News. “There was blood in her nose, there was blood coming out of the mouth and a huge gash on her chin.”

She was taken to Beth Israel Medical Center but ultimately died.

Investigators think it's possible she "struck her chin in a fall down a flight of marble stairs," New York Magazine reported Monday.

Brigham was reportedly drinking at a wedding Sunday night. Her roommate said she was still drinking Monday morning when he left for work, according to New York Magazine.

Brigham married Anthony Champalimaud last August. He was reportedly working in London when she died.

Brigham worked at the American Museum of Natural History but left in April, NY1 reported.

An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

DON'T MISS: Mother Of Alleged Baltimore High School Shooter Had A Sign With A Gun On Her House >

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6 More NYC Financiers And Their Lovely Leading Ladies

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eric zinterhofer aerin lauder zinterhofer

Last week we brought you ten NYC financiers who managed to land some of our favorite ladies, from Leandra Medine to Mary-Kate Olsen.

As it turns out, the list goes on. So, we want to introduce you to another batch of fine financiers and the leading ladies who've managed to steal their hearts. Click through to see the powerful duos in part II.

Go HERE to check out part I of NYC Financiers And Their Leading Ladies!

Euan Rellie and Lucy Skyes

What he does: Managing Director of Business Development Asia, a Manhattan-based investment bank.

Euan Rellie may be a banker by day, but the Brit has also established himself on the New York social scene. As if he didn't have enough on his plate, he is also a style contributor for Park & Bond. It's no wonder he managed to scoop up the gorgeous Lucy Sykes, consulting fashion director at Rent The Runway. The couple met in 1998, while Sykes was dating Euan's then roommate, but despite that, the couple fell in love and married in 2002.



Jamie Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard

What he does: Partner in international development operations focusing on capital fundraising and investor relations at The Claremont Group.

Jamie met his wife Veronica Swanson Beard at a mutual friend's wedding, where it was love at first sight for the duo. They were later married at a ceremony held in New Orleans in 2004. Veronica, an heiress of the frozen-food pioneers Swanson, told Fashion Week Daily that marrying Jamie was already on her mind when they were first introduced.



Eric Zinterhofer and Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer

What he does: Partner and founder of Searchlight Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity firm.

Eric Zinterhofer and Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, granddaughter of Estee Lauder, have more than stood the test of time. The college sweethearts, who were married in 1996, now have two sons, Will and Jack. The duo also isn't afraid to mix work into their personal life. The cosmetic heiress sits on the board of Estee Lauder, which is reportedly one of the key investors in Eric's company, Searchlight Capital, a private equity firm he founded in 2010.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Prince Harry Is Dating A Gorgeous Socialite Named Cressida Bonas

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cressida bonas

Prince Harry has a new girlfriend — the blue-eyed, blonde, and beautiful British socialite Cressida Bonas.

The two were just spotted by The Daily Mail cozying up while vacationing at an exclusive ski resort in Verbier, Switzerland.

They reportedly "kissed like lovestruck teenagers in the back of a cinema" while at dinner with Prince Harry's family, The Daily Mail reported. Later, they hugged on the slopes, where they were photographed by paparazzi. 

Reports say the pair started dating last May after being introduced by Harry's cousin Princess Eugenie, but cooled when the prince's naked pictures from Vegas surfaced.

Seems like they are very much back together. Since the latest photos surfaced, Bonas has jumped to the top of The Tatler List, an ever-changing "who's who" of people who are being buzzed about in the UK.

So who is Cressida Bonas?

The 24-year-old model and would-be-actress is the daughter of Lady Mary Gaye Curzon, a British "It" girl from the 1960s who is four times divorced, according to The Daily Mail.

Her father is Jeffrey Bonas, who studied at Harrow and Oxford before becoming an entrepreneur and businessman, according to E! Online.

Like Prince Harry's ex Chelsy Davy, Bonas studied at Leeds University after attending the elite Stowe School, where boarding students pay $46,000 a year, according to The Daily Mail.

She's also dabbled in acting, having played Desdemona in Othello while at Leeds, according to The Mirror.

Bonas is not the first person in her family with ties to royalty. Her older half-sister is Isabella Gough-Calthorpe, a British movie star, a rumored former flame of Prince William, and fiancé of Richard Branson's son Sam, according to The Daily Mail.

A true blue blood, Bonas is friends with Princess Eugenie, who set her up with the prince, as well as Arthur Landon, a young socialite who stands to inherit some $300 million, according to The Mirror.

Landon is also close friends with Prince Harry, and defended him after his now-infamous bender in Las Vegas, The Daily Mail reported at the time.

Prior to linking up with the prince, Bonas used to date Harry Wentworth-Stanley, whose stepfather is a cousin the Queen, according to The Mirror.

Now Watch: Here's What Celebrities Like Prince Harry Drink Poolside When They Go To Richard Branson's Private Island

 

DON'T MISS: The Incredible Lives Of The World's Richest Royals

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Hedge Funder Sues Former Goldman Exec For Allegedly Helping His Ex Inflate Her Child Support

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Annabelle Bond

Hedge funder Warren Lichtenstein says that Andrew Cader, a former Goldman exec, conspired with British socialite Annabelle Bond to inflate her child support payments from him, New York Times Peter Lattman reports.

Lichtenstein, who runs New York-based hedge fund Steel Partners, has a five-year-old daughter with Bond, his former fiancée. 

He alleges that Cader, the current boyfriend who also owns part of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, conspired with Bond, the daughter of a former HSBC chairman, to conceal her financial standing so she could get more than $50,000 monthly in child support, the report said.

Lichtenstein's suit says that Bond and their daughter had been living in Cader's $26,000 per month apartment in Hong Kong, according to the report.  Lichtenstein's suit also claims that the apartment and more than $3.5 million in cash were disguised as loans. 

The fund manager's suit said that because of this, a Hong Kong court awarded his ex "one of the largest" child support payments in Hong Kong consisting of $41,800 a month and other expenses including school, medical and travel.

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NYC Yuppies Are Paying $500 A Year For A New Exclusive Dating Club

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Veuve Clicquot Polo ClassicAfter years of being forced to socialize with the common folk, New York yuppies finally have the members-only club they always dreamed of.

IvyConnect hosts posh events and provides members with romantic and professional opportunities, acting as a kind of pseudo-sorority social chair for cocksure twentysomethings.

The club has 3,000 members with an estimated 2,000 on the waiting list, according to the New York Post.

From the Post:

“We’re very selective,” explains 31-year-old co-founder Philipp Triebel, who grew up in Germany and has degrees from the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard.

“And we do turn down people to ensure that we’re building a community of like-minded people,” he says, adding that he can’t disclose the rejection rate.

Harvard's rejection rate is about 94% if that's any indication.

“We want well-rounded people," co-founder Beri Meric said, probably with a straight face.

IvyConnect applicants must submit a résumé, photo, a list of frequented cities, and personality traits. A five-person selection committee reviews their applications. As a testament to IvyConnect's spirit of inclusiveness, you need not be a graduate of an Ivy League school (so long as you meet the "criteria" of excellence).

“We had a big room [in the Mount Snow, Vermont ski lodge] where we could host everyone for après-ski drinks and snacks when we arrived,” says Triebel, who shares a Chelsea apartment with Meric.

“It felt like one big family trip.”

Nauseous yet? Great, because IvyConnect is coming to a city near you. With $2.6 million in individual investments, they plan to expand to DC, Boston, and Los Angeles.

Read the full report at the New York Post >

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It Can Cost Nearly Half A Million Dollars A Year To Be A New York Socialite

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Socialites tinsley mortimer and olivia palermo

According to The New York Times, it takes a lot of work (plus a whole lot of money) to be a successful New York socialite.

Ignoring real estate, vacations, shopping sprees, and pets, Times reporter Ruth La Ferla set out to answer how much it costs to live the life of a socialite on the society circuit.

In a handy rundown, she calculated the expenses of two archetypal socialites: One who has been on the scene for years, and another who is just starting to climb the social ladder.

The Times estimates that Bea Grande — the older, more experienced fictional socialite — spends $455,450 each year prepping herself for charity events: $3,000 for a personal stylist, $120,000 for a publicist, $100,000 for wardrobe, and $200,000 for the tickets.

The fictional Grande also spends $7,500 on at-home hair and make up styling, $18,000 on a personal trainer, and $5,700 yearly for Botox and glycolic peels.

Serena Goodsense, the younger fictional socialite, spends an estimated $98,645 each year. Instead of a car service, she would take a taxi, and instead of a personal trainer, she has an annual gym membership at a posh gym.

And though she spends virtually the same amount as Grande on Botox and chemical peels, she saves money with cheaper make up, hair cuts, and by buying designer gowns off the rack or borrowing them for a night.

However, there is a price socialites pay for being a Serena Goodsense and cutting corners. "We tee-hee about those girls behind their backs," real socialite Natalie Leeds Leventhal confessed to La Ferla.

Read all about the fabulous lives of society women here.

SEE ALSO: How To Live Like A Modern Day Great Gatsby

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