A Vanity Fair photo editor who was stuck with the $62,000 bill for a lavish trip to Marrakesh with fake German heiress Anna Sorokin testified at her fraud trial on Wednesday about how they became friends by visiting infared saunas in New York together.
Rachel Deloache Williams, 31, became friends with Sorokin in 2016 when she was introducing herself as Anna Delvey, a German solar panel heiress.
The pair became close and in May 2017, they went to Marrakesh on a lavish trip Delvey arranged and claimed she would pay for.
When none of her credit cards worked as they tried to assuage Moroccan police and hotel staff during the trip, Williams was forced to pay the $62,000 balance they had racked up her credit card. It was more than she earned in a year at the time.
She wrote about her experience with Sorokin for Vanity Fair last year in one of two articles about the case.
On Wednesday, she retold much of that story but also gave new details about her friendship with the 28-year-old who has become known as the 'Soho gritter' and revealed that she has signed on to an HBO series about the story.
Rachel Deloache Williams, 31, testifies against Anna Sorokin at her fraud trial in Manhattan on Wednesday
Williams was at times embarrassed as she testified about her extravagant lifestyle with Sorokin and laughed when describing it to the jury
They met, she said, in February 2016 and were friends for 18 months. At the start of their friendship, Delvey often paid for the pair to go to infared saunas in the East Village.
They also dined together and worked out with celebrity trainer Kacy Duke with Sorokin footing the bill.
Williams recalled her European friend telling her: 'You work harder for your money than I do' and being 'grateful'.
They had dinner together at Le Coucou, the expensive restaurant in Sorokon's hotel - 11 Howard - but Williams never paid, she said.
According to The New York Times, even she was 'embarrassed' on Wednesday as she described their extravagant trip to the jury.
Anna Sorokin is shown as Williams leaves the stand, talking to her lawyer
The 28-year-old Russian native is on trial for fraud. She is accused of duping bankers as well as Manhattan's elite
Sorokin was dressed entirely in black on Wednesday in a shirt, skirt and tights. Her attorney has
