Ep 4. Fake Heiress

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Prep for a busy week with Whole Foods Market. Start your day with fully cooked breakfast sausages from Amy Liu, 365 brand frozen waffles with no bleached flours, and of course, Whole Foods Market eggs, which are all cage-free or better. In the evening, bring home a build-your-own family meal that feeds four for just $35. Choose one entree and two sides. Shop smarter, not harder, at Whole Foods Market. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Anna Delvey lived a life of trust fund luxury in New York City. But her fortune was built on a lie. One which ended up costing friends, hotels, lawyers and bankers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Narcissistic, sociopathic, Machiavellian. Well, she's a con artist. You know, we don't know who she is. Fake it till you make it on an industrial scale. You can't avoid that. My name's Vicky Baker, and I'm a journalist for BBC World News. In this six-part podcast, Fake Heiress, I'm working with playwright and screenwriter Chloe Moss to dig deeper into this New York scandal. Together, we'll mix drama with documentary to tell the story of Anna Delvey's rise and fall. You'll hear scenes based on court reports, press coverage and interviews with those who knew her. You'll also hear from some of those people directly. Some scenes will be fictionalised because, well, what's Anna Delvey's story without a bit of make-believe? Did Anna really think she could make her lies a reality? I think she did. It doesn't sit easy with people. Anyone who's been involved with it is not going to feel very. It's a horrible feeling to realise that you've been conned. Fake Heiress Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? You know the best piece of advice anybody ever gave me? Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. It's so true. I love that. Decide what you want and give it everything you've got. I'd rather do that and fail than never even try in the first place. For big results, you have to take big risks. Part 4. Monopoly Money. It's one thing to pretend to be a multi-millionaire with people you hardly know at parties. It's quite another to keep up such pretenses with lawyers and banks. But this is where Anna Sorokin had ended up at the start of 2017, as her scam escalated into full-on illegality. Going under the name of Anna Delvey, she was claiming to be the only woman in the world who had ever been a millionaire. She claimed to be the heir to a multi-million-dollar fortune. Yet in reality, this was an average 20-something who had grown up in an ordinary suburban household in Germany, having been born to Russian parents. She had a taste of the high life going to VIP parties as a magazine intern in Paris, and she ran with it. In New York, her adopted new home, she told people she was gaining access to a huge trust fund on her birthday, which would enable her to create a grand art space and members club called the Anna Delvey Foundation. She had brought an architect on board and scouted the location. Things were coming together. All she needed now was an actual fortune. In January 2017, Anna was reluctantly back in Germany, near Cologne, because she needed time out of the US to reset her tourist visa. She was working on a plan that involved getting a $22 million loan while apparently living in her parents' house. She had created a fake accountant using a scam account, a separate email address, and a burner phone, and forged documents to use as a proof of assets. Astoundingly, after some serious networking and posturing, she had even managed to get two banks to consider her application. The first, Citi National Bank, rejected it after consideration. However, Fortress Investment Group said they could move forward with the application if she wired them a deposit as part of their vetting procedure. So instead of being deterred, Anna went back to Citi National Bank with a comparative minor ask. She simply needed a temporary overdraft. Because I need privacy. This is work. Sorry, I lost you. Hey, it's okay. So, timescale. I know you have to do your due diligence. I've been through these KYC processes before. I know you can make it happen quickly. If I cut corners. And I don't cut corners. I have a trust fund of $67 million on the way. I intend to double that amount in the next three years. I'm the client you want. Are you really going to jeopardize that over $100,000 for. a couple of weeks? I need a few days. Earliest I can turn this around will be Thursday. Wednesday. That would be pushing it. Then push it. After a while, the funds dropped into Anna's account. A hundred thousand dollars. Citi National Bank was fooled by her forged documents and granted her the overdraft, on condition that the funds were quickly returned, and were repaid via the wire transfer she had repeatedly promised. This is weird, right? Why would a bank do this? They must have still viewed her as a potentially high-value client. This sort of banking is based on face-to-face interviews and relationship building. Not walking in off the street and having your details plugged into a computer for the first time. The reputation that she built was working wonders for her. This particular LA-based bank has been dubbed the "Bank of the Stars" due to its dealings with Hollywood clients. That is no doubt why Anna targeted it. And why she had sought a personal introduction in the first place to increase her credibility. Nevertheless, she was using homemade forged documents reportedly made herself using Microsoft Word. It was a bad call by the bank. I'm trying to imagine how Anna felt sitting on that money. This was no overnight whimful. It had been four years since she reinvented herself as heiress Anna Delvey. Four years of running out of money. Not on bills, or getting other people to cover them. It was astounding that she'd had the stamina to keep it up so long, and that she had not yet been exposed. Throughout this time, her own bank accounts had been constantly running on empty. And yet now, here she was, with $100,000 to her name. Did she hesitate at all as she transferred the entire sum to Fortress Investment Group? Or did she still have her eyes, optimistically, on the price? ♪ I was close to defeat, I rose to my feet ♪ ♪ My life's like a soundtrack, I wrote to the beat ♪ ♪ Street rap like Galleyweed, I smoke 'til I'm asleep ♪ ♪ Wake up in the AM ♪ - Oh, what are you doing? We're supposed to be enjoying the countryside, and you're listening to your music. - Just a little family time, that's all we're asking. - I've been back here for weeks. How much do you need? - Sitting upstairs on your computer is not family time. - And please, Anka, stop biting your nails. - I know, I know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. - We have hardly any information about her parents, and certainly nothing about their personalities or their relationship with their daughter. Anna later told her friend Rachel that she took long walks while she was at home in Germany to clear her head. During these months, she posted a photo of the cornfields in her home state, North Rhine-Westphalia, on her Instagram account. It looked lovely, but we know she must have been itching to get back to New York. - Thank you for the deposit, Miss Delvey. One's cleared into our account yesterday, so we're now able to proceed. - How long will it take to transfer the money? - Well, we still have a couple of clearance issues. - Which are surely resolved, because I just gave you $100,000 to secure the loan. I'm at a critical stage right now with the leaseholders. They're becoming impatient. I can't lose this building. - As you can imagine, loans of this size require a few extra security checks. - What other documentation should I get a hold of? - Nothing else, it's really very simple. In fact, you don't have to do anything. - Then what do you need? - We need to send a Fortress representative to meet with your banker in Switzerland. That's all. A quick meeting, then we can finalize the loan. - Why? You've seen my statements. You've seen everything. - It's standard protocol. - Nobody mentioned it before. - We usually don't until we get to this stage. You don't have to be there. It's very straightforward. We compare records, clarify a few details. The whole thing's usually wrapped up within the area. the hour. Is there a problem? No. Not at all. I'm just concerned about the time this is taking. I understand. We can send someone over at the beginning of next week and have everything finalized by Friday. How does that sound? Yeah, sure. That sounds good. It didn't sound good at all. Inside, Anna must have been utterly crestfallen. She'd got this far by pretending to be her banker through fake emails. But she couldn't send anyone for a face-to-face meeting. Anna felt she had no choice but to pull out of the application. She blustered something about her father deciding to fund her project directly instead. However, it was too late to retract the full $100,000. Fortress had already taken $45,000 for due diligence checks and legal fees. That left her with $55,000. She wired it to her separate Citibank account to keep it under her control. Did that feel like a lot? or still like a whim for? Or was it all just monopoly money at this stage? Anna could certainly have used some of this money to make a dent in her various debts with the legal firms and creative consultants she had hired so far. But she didn't. It was go big or stay home. She booked a first-class ticket back to New York. How can I help you, ma'am? I'd like a room, please. For an extended stay. Oh, certainly. How long were you thinking? At least three weeks. I'm not sure yet. I was going to have my PA take care of it, but I was just passing, so. Oh, of course, that's not a problem. And I suppose Abby's around today? Abby Rosen? The owner? Oh. Well, no. He's not here today, I'm afraid. I'll give him a call. I'd like to move in straight away, if that's possible. Oh. Yes, of course. I'll arrange that for you now, ma'am. Thank you. The Eleven Howard was one of the newest boutique hotels in Soho, but there was likely to have been another reason Anna picked it. Abby Rosen, an art dealer and the hotel's owner, also owned Church Missions House, the building she wanted to become the home of the Anna Delby Foundation. Perhaps that was why she proceeded to make such a big show of wealth at his hotel, in the hope that it would get back to him and he would still be able to afford it. Anna was a very popular guest at the time, and she was a very popular guest. She was a very popular guest at the time, and she was a very popular guest at the time, and she was a very popular guest at the time, and she was a very popular guest at the time, in the frame for the lease. Anna became renowned at the hotel for making extravagant purchases and dishing out $100 tips. She became a regular at the upstairs concierge desk, which was often staffed by 25-year-old Nefertari Davis, known as Neff. Here is what Neff later told Paper Magazine about her interactions with Anna. Usually tourists just come in and ask how to get to the Statue of Liberty. But then you have this girl who's draped in Rick Owens, huge Celine glasses, messy hair, European accent, hundreds of dollars of bills on her, and she's literally just giving it to me for my time? It was almost like therapy for her. And you know, I've helped people get away from their wives and out of bad marriages just by talking to them. So I figured, what's the difference? It's really none of my business where the money comes from. She said that amid all the bad press that followed, the Anna that she knew was positive, giving, did well, and was a great girl. Paper Magazine also described Neff as Anna's only friend in New York, but that was a stretch. At the same time, Anna was also forging another significant female friendship with Rachel Deloach Williams, a photo editor at Vanity Fair Magazine. They were only losing. race acquaintances when Anna was last in the city. But they got back in touch on her return. She was quirky. She was impulsive, fun, slightly offbeat. And there was something about her you couldn't quite put your finger on. She sought me out sort of, I think it was the day she arrived, she wanted to go to lunch. And at that point, I'm, you know, I'm superficially extroverted, but actually fairly shy. So I was nervous to see this person. That I didn't actually know that well, I'd spent some time with. And she was kind of this large personality who came back to New York and wanted to see me instantly. And I just remember walking in and feeling like, I don't really know her. And so I sat down, and of course, the first thing I did was like, "So, like, how was your time at home? Like, how's your family? What did you do while you were there?" I mean, the idea of family is always nicer. You're not close. Look, it's hard to stomach listening to someone from a wealthy background complain about their childhood. I get how lucky I am, but it's a lonely life, too. I had everything I needed in a material sense, but my parents were never really around. My brother and I had a string of nannies while they jetted around the world. We just don't connect. It's one of those things. Every trip away, they bring us back a present, something most kids would give their right arm for. But all I really wanted was for them not to go away in the first place. I'm sorry, Rachel, but I don't think that's the right thing to do. You know, you're thinking, poor little princess, right? Not at all. Can we get the check? Listen, let me at least -- It's fine. I'll charge it to my room. Are you sure? You're my friend. If it was the other way around, I'm sure you'd do the same. People can get so awkward about money. It's only awkward if you don't have any. Rachel also bought into the idea of the Anna Delvey Foundation. In hindsight, it seems laughable, but the way that she, she would talk about it in person in those early days actually sounded pretty interesting and well thought through. You know, she had these pitch decks and she had really researched who she wanted to be involved and she had the stuff to back it up to the degree that she was, you know, presenting it to financial institutions and being taken seriously. Rachel joined Anna at multiple boozy meals at the hotel restaurant and also at her elite personal training sessions. According to Neff, Anna had thrown down a $4,500 cash payment to secure the services of trainer to the stars, Casey Duke. She would sign things to her room, so I often didn't see the price tag. I knew the cost of the personal trainer because when she invited me to continue coming, I was like, well, it's your time, it's, I don't want to take up Casey's attention. This is your personal training session. And she was like, well, I'm paying $300 a session. So I feel like it's my time and I can do what I want with it. You know, I think we, as a twosome, balanced out in some strange way because I was on the extreme end of being polite and self-conscious and worrying about the people around us. And she was on the extreme end of not caring. And I saw that and thought, oh, like, I should try to just relax a little bit, like, live my life, stand up for myself. And according to Rachel, Anna turned up for one of the first sessions wearing a high performance ridged scuba suit from Net-a-Porter. I have absolutely no idea what that means, but it doesn't sound cheap. OK, come on, stop sinking into your body. Shoulders back, navel to spine, chin up a little. You're a bright woman. You want to be a businesswoman. You've got to be staying strong in your own power. Is she a fitness coach or a light coach? A little bit of both. That's why I love her. Come on, you can do this, but you need to focus. I'm literally going to die. No pain, no gain. Anna, you're doing great. Keep it up. Did you see Dakota Johnson's part in Fifty Shades of Grey? I mean, yeah. It was hard not to. Casey was her trainer. She's basically responsible for her body. If you look at it that way, then $300 per session is a steal. Anna was excelling at spending. She would arrive at the reception of the Eleven Howard loaded with shopping bags from designer clothes companies and the Apple store. She started wearing $400 eyelash extensions and treating Neff and Rachel to trips to spas and infrared saunas. Meanwhile, she was simultaneously fobbing off anyone chasing her for money. Citi National Bank wanted to know where the $100,000 was to cover her overdraft. She repeatedly insisted the full amount had already been wired, providing fake statements as proof and trying to bide more time. And she was still hopeful that another possible route to financing would come off. Anna! Hi! Hi! Hey, I was passing and thought I'd pop in. Do you have a few minutes to spare? Maybe we could grab a drink at the bar? Here's to you. Look, I just wanted to pay a courtesy visit. Check in. I'm sorry things didn't work out with the loan. Yeah, there were a few issues for me. I did explain. Oh, no, hey, look, sure. I'm not here to dissect it all. This isn't a fortress meeting. You're an incredible young woman. I'm very impressed by you. It feels important to say that. Thank you. Oh, of course. Listen, if there's anything I can do to help you out. You could help me get a loan. Well, you have to play ball with the bank, but seriously, anything else I can help with going forward? Advice? Just somebody to talk to? I'm here. I get that it can be. Overwhelming. I'm not overwhelmed. I just need a loan, and I need it fast. Can you help me with that? I'm afraid I did all I could. Would you excuse me while I go to the bathroom? Of course. I'll order more drinks. In court, it was later revealed that Fortress' representative. Dennis Onabajo, sent Anna 158 texts throughout this period. I'm forcing myself not to kiss you because you are insanely beautiful. He said they were a mistake. He is no longer a Fortress employee. Hey, Neff, I need to get out, Claus. I finish in five. Want to grab a drink somewhere? Perfect. Let me come upstairs and say a proper goodbye. At the time, Anna might have still thought she had a shot with Fortress. She must have felt like she had various irons in the fire. She just had to pull one of these plans off. But how long could Anna keep her spending spree going? At the 11 Howard Hotel, the bills were mounting. She was also splashing cash at the hotel's high-class French restaurant, Le Cucu, where she would sometimes hold meetings to impress possible investors. With its tall candles and white linen tablecloths, Le Cucu eschewed the trend of casual business. It was the best-selling hotel in the world. The hotel was the only hotel in the world where the hotel was the best-selling hotel in the world. It was the first hotel in the world where the hotel was the best-selling hotel in the world. Along the way, the hotel had made a big mistake. They allowed these bills to rack up without having a working credit card for her on file. It was another unusual oversight that enabled Anna to defer the consequences of her spending. But it couldn't go on indefinitely. Oh, Miss Delvey, can I have a word? Yes. We've left you several messages regarding your bill. I didn't get any messages. We've sent invoices. We've sent invoices to your room. I've been out on business a lot. Is there a problem? Your bill is overdue, and we don't appear to have a credit card on file for you. The outstanding balance is now rather significant. How much do I owe? Thirty one thousand four hundred and sixty dollars. We need payment in the next twenty four hours. And in the meantime, if if I can take a credit card to put on file, of course, I'll organize a wire transfer. Did you get the delivery OK? Excuse me? A case of 1975 Dom Perignon for you and the rest of the staff. It's a small thank you. Everyone's been so attentive. You have a great team. I was telling my father he's flying out next month with the rest of my family and he's keen to stay here, too. If you could arrange the wire transfer for the outstanding balance immediately, then I would appreciate it. A few days later, the Eleven Howard received a payment. In a surprising move, Anna cleared her debt with them in its entirety. How? She had not managed to secure a loan or a new overdraft. Instead, she fell back on an age old trick. During the second week of April, she wrote checks to herself totaling one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Then she deposited them into an account she held with Citibank. Then she quickly withdrew as much money as she could before the checks bounced. She ended up with seventy thousand dollars. This is extraordinary. I was confused by how easy Anna made this look. I called Jason Zirkle, a training director at the U.S. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, to fill in some gaps. He explained to me how Anna took advantage of a float period. That's the time it takes for two banks to communicate between each other. The Federal Reserve is the middleman. Years ago, this process took days. Now it takes less than 24 hours. But that is all that someone like Anna needs. It seems crazy that this loophole exists. The U.K. has moved away from using paper checks, but they remain common in the U.S. Jason told me that banks weigh up what level of risk they are willing to take on. And so they figure it's worth some potential losses to retain older customers who still love using checks. So theoretically, what is stopping you or I indulging in a bit of check bouncing or check kiting tomorrow? Well, for anyone with a normal life, this sort of deed is simply too high risk. It is totally traceable. You'd be caught. Your credit score would be ruined and you could be charged with a crime. However, my guess is that Anna by this point was in such a financial mess that she could have felt she had nothing else to lose. She was stuck in a cycle of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sooner or later, all these things were going to catch up with her. And some people were already asking questions. Hey, Neff, how's it going? Well, I'm still stuck here, so you take a guess. But, hey, I'm definitely moving in the right circles. My new friend is one of your dad's business associates, Anna Delvey. She's this super cool German heiress. Never heard of her. You must have. She's leasing a building from him on Park Avenue South, the Church Missions House. Yes, it's going to be some kind of art foundation. She's actually living at Eleven Howard at the moment. We've been hanging out. My dad's never mentioned her. Which suite is she in? Oh, she's not in a suite. She's in one of the deluxes. A deluxe? Yeah. Why? So this woman, this heiress who's apparently leasing the Church Missions House from dad is also staying in the hotel he owns and she's not in a suite? That is way off. No way. She's legit, I swear. She's not in a suite. I don't think she's in a suite. No, I absolutely don't want to lose it. There's just been a slight delay with the release of my trust fund, but it's a technicality. I can have this wrapped up very quickly. Please, if you can just hold on. Anna needed access to some serious money to make this plan work. Perhaps it was time to try and get cosy with some billionaires again and seek investment. She had one group in her sights. Welcome to Blade, ma'am. Hi, my name is Anna Delvey. I'm on the jet to Oakland. I'm on the jet to Omaha today. May I please see your ticket? I'm a friend of Rob Weisenthal. I called earlier and explained that I had sent a wire transfer from a German account, which will take 24 hours to clear. Oh, OK. Um, could you excuse me for just one moment, please? You're headed to Omaha? Yes, me too. For the Hathaway meeting? Yes, you? Yeah, I go every year. Woodstock for capitalists. I live in hope of an invitation to the Warren Buffett party. Warren is a family friend. Are you kidding me? Ms. Delvey, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. Here is your ticket. Have a wonderful flight. Catch you in Omaha. Yes, ma'am. Anna really did charter a jet to Omaha, Nebraska, and she never paid a cent for it. The company, Blade, mostly caters to very high-end New York commuters who want to use the app to book a helicopter to an airport or the Hamptons. Usually, the company insists on all customers paying in advance, as you might expect. However, they have said they sometimes make an exception for regulars. Anna had never flown with them before this spring day, but she had met the CEO socially. He bought into her millionaire persona and trusted she would come good. Her intention to visit Warren Buffett's shareholder meeting may have seen it possible, too. Why else would she be going to Omaha at that specific time of year? I'm not sure she actually went to the meeting. I think she went to the zoo and got drunk. But anyhow, I knew she had actually taken a jet to Omaha. It wasn't smoke and mirrors. They were real things. I saw her spend real money. I mean, she made it out of thin air by check-kiting, but the money was real. According to a Blade representative, the company refused to provide another jet for her return. But somehow she made it back to New York. And she was now even further in debt. Hey, Anna, how was the trip? Crazy. I wound up at a dinner with Bill Gates. Are you serious? There's so much to tell you, but I literally haven't slept for two days. I'm exhausted and I can't get in my room. Can you sort my key? Has nobody talked to you? They locked you out. I sent over $30,000 less than two weeks ago. That's crazy. I know, but it's mounting up again and there's still no plastic on file for you. What about my things? They put it all in storage. Apparently they called you like a million. Are you serious? They cannot do that. Well, they did. I'm sorry. Don't shoot the messenger. They can't get away with this. I'll make them pay. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to buy web domains and all of the managers names. Why? Because then I'll own them. They'll be my bitches and one day if they want to use their own domain names, then they'll have to pay me. It's good, isn't it? Anna had apparently picked up this signature move from her friend, farmer bro, Martin Skrilli. Somewhere along the line, she had met the former hedge fund manager and disgraced CEO. He became known as the most hated man in America after obtaining the licence for an HIV drug and hiking up the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Skrilli has admitted to buying the website domains of those who crossed him, then offering to sell them back for prices he knew they couldn't afford. Anna reportedly called him her guru. He is now in prison for fraud. Anna was livid about what she perceived as mistreatment at the Eleven Howard Hotel. Was it a coincidence that she posted some artwork from Tom Ford's film Nocturnal Animals on her Instagram that week? It was a close-up of one word. Revenge. Welcome to the Fyre Festival. Two transformative weekends. An immersive music festival on a remote and private island in the Exumas. The best in food, art, music and adventure. Once owned by Pablo Escobar. Entrepreneur Billy McFarlane was another person with grand plans in New York. In April 2017, he was in full swing of a promotional campaign for his Bahamas-based Fyre Festival, which is now an infamous fiasco. Like Anna, he sold a ridiculously high-end fantasy that he could not deliver. Yet during this period, Fyre was the talk of the town in certain circles, even as it started to fall apart. It is likely that this was on Anna's radar. New York gossip pages have suggested Billy and Anna had already crossed paths. But one thing is for certain. As an avid Instagrammer, Anna would have been very familiar with the effects of social media hype. She decided she wanted to create more of a buzz around the Anna Delvey fandom. She said she wanted to do more of a buzz around the Anna Delvey fandom. She felt that what she needed was a glamorous behind-the-scenes video starring her as the aspirational founder. Because she wasn't a US citizen, she said she needed to leave the country every three months to reset her visa. She didn't want to go back to Cologne, Germany, where she told me she was from. She suggested we take a trip somewhere warm and she needed to go further away than like Mexico or Canada or an outlying island. So she wanted to go to Marrakesh. And then she framed it as though it was going to be a trip to America. And then she framed it as though it was going to be this opportunity to create a documentary or to start kind of thinking about creating a documentary about the creation of her private art foundation. So she said she wanted to see what it was like to have someone around with a camera and she wanted to sort of pitch the trip as though it were a business expense and then picked Marrakesh and was like, I've booked this private villa. Who shall we bring? My name is Justin Park and I traveled with Anna Delvey to Morocco. I'm a photographer. I'm friends with Rachel Williams. And while I was in New York, we made plans to get dinner together one evening. And when I showed up to dinner, she asked if I minded if her friend joined us. And her friend was Anna Delvey. Rachel tells me you're a photographer and videographer. Yeah, we met through work years ago. Jesse practically saved my life during a night shoot from hell. Rachel and I are going to Morocco next week. I'm making a promotional video for my art foundation. You should come. Oh, excuse me? You could shoot the video, take photos. I'll pay for everything, obviously. It'll be fun. Are you free next week? I mean, yeah, in theory. Don't you want to see any of my work first? If you're a friend of Rachel's, then I'm sure you know what you're doing. She has great days. Definitely the quickest job offer I've ever had. This is so Anna. Oh my God, how exciting. Jesse, you should see the place we're staying. It's literally a palace. Seriously, it's so beautiful. We even have our own boat. We're going to be a butler while we're there. Are you in? Could I at least think about it? Come on. I'll get everything sorted. Actually, Rachel, could you do me a favor? I'm super busy with the foundation this week. If I give you my credit card, could you arrange flights first of all? Oh my God, of course. It's the least I can do. Cool. Okay, well, here's to Morocco. To Morocco. To Morocco. Little did Rachel know that the trip would leave her saddled with colossal debt. In the next episode of Fake Heiress, Morocco is the trip of a lifetime. It's just beautiful. For $7,000 a night, I should hope so. Until Anna manages to avoid the bill. So by the time I left Morocco, Anna owed me $62,000. That is somebody who's able to put other people in a situation where they may be in danger. I'm working flat out, but everything is falling apart. NYPD, could you step this way, please? You have been listening to Fake Heiress. The program was reported by me, Vicki Baker, and the drama was written by Chloe Moss. The producer was Sasha Yeftyshenko. The film is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Google Play, and Amazon Play Store. Henry Akeley disappeared from his home on the edge of Rendlesham Forest somewhere around the end of June 2019. They come every night now. The police don't believe me. Please, I just need you to get in touch. What we uncovered is a mystery that has sent us deep into England's past, to an area steeped in witchcraft, the occult. Secret government operations. Now we have multiple sites of five lights with a similar shape. And something that might indeed be altogether otherworldly. This is The Whisperer in Darkness. Available now on BBC Sounds.