September 7, 2024 • 42 mins
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin conned her way into Manhattan society.
Using the alias Anna Delvey, she swindled banks, hotels, and friends out of more than $200,000. She forged checks to obtain money from banks and charmed others into covering extravagant meals and travel expenses.
Sorokin was convicted on multiple counts of grand larceny and theft of services. After serving her sentence, the 31-year-old was released from prison and is now fighting deportation.
Despite this, Sorokin continues to find success. She secured a deal with Netflix for the rights to her life story and began selling her artwork. Sorokin also commented that her home confinement and social media ban feel “more restrictive” than jail. She now says her ankle monitor has turned her into a spectacle.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Wendy Patrick – California Prosecutor, Author of “Why Bad Looks Good” and “Red Flags,” and Host of “Today with Dr. Wendy” on KCBQ in San Diego; X: @WendyPatrickPHD
- Dr. Donna Rockwell – Clinical Psychologist (Michigan/New York) Specializes in Celebrity Mental Health; Adjunct Faculty: Saybrook University: College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences, DonnaRockwell.com; CEO/Founder: “Already Famous with Dr. Donna”
- Jim Ellis – Certified Fraud Examiner, Former FBI Agent (29 years), JKE Texas Private Investigator
- Rebecca Rosenberg – Crime Reporter; Author: “At Any Cost;” Twitter: @ReRosenberg
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace does the name Anna Delvi
ring a bell the fake Heiress aka Anna Sorkin, who
claimed to be a Russian heiress and worth millions of dollars,
(00:23):
But what she did is rip off friends and business
acquaintances to the ten of tens of thousands of dollars,
possibly up to a quarter million dollars. Well, it ain't
over yet. In the last days, the fake Heiress Anna
(00:44):
Delvi says she doesn't want to be a quote spectacle. Really,
since when she doesn't want to be a quote spectacle
with her be dazzled ankle monitor, I mean, is he Grace?
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
(01:04):
Anna Delvi, who we believe ripped off friends, acquaintances, and
business connections up to the tune of around two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, convincing all these people she was
a fake Russian heiress. Oh, dear Lord in Heaven now
claims wearing her ankle monitor is a quote pain and
(01:32):
she's lodging constant complaints about her ankle monitor. The choice
is going back to jail Anna Delvi aka and Asorkin,
but the fake Heiress tells the new York Post. It's
not about style. She just doesn't want to be stared at.
Really doesn't want to be stared at. That's all she
(01:52):
wants is to be stared at. Delvi again, whose real
name is Annasorkin, has been forced to wear the GPS
tracker since she was released from US Immigration and Customs
on a ten thousand dollars bond back in October twenty
twenty two. This is while she fights being deported back
(02:13):
to Germany. Every month she has to check in with
ICE in New York and she's been a quote real
pain in the ass end quote constantly complaining the device
is quote not fashionable. I can't believe I'm hearing this.
Does it never end with this woman? Now? This is
(02:34):
according to the US Department of Homeland Security. But Delvy,
who was the inspiration for a Netflix special nine episodes,
as I recall that I was forced to watch my
eyes were bleeding to prepare to cover the case, and
since that, she just doesn't want to be a spectacle
that comes with wearing an ankle monitor. Let's refresh our recollection.
(02:57):
Who is Annadelvi? Why does she claims she's a fake heiress?
Her real name is Annasorkin. Why doesn't she acknowledge she
actually has real parents back home in Germany? And how
did she rip off New York society to the tune
of about a quarter million dollars? Now complaining her ankle
(03:19):
monitor is quote not fashionable? What happened? Art aside? Take
a listen to Inside edition.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
She claims she was a wealthy heiress from Europe worth
more than sixty million dollars, but it was a lie.
Annasorkin went to prison for two years for defrauding banks, hotels,
and even her closest friends out of hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Her trial drew international attention.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
This woman made national headlines posing as a wealthy woman.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Now, the woman known as the SOHO Grifter is speaking
to ABC's Debra Rubber.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
This is the first time you've sat down for television interview.
Why are you talking with us?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Why not?
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I would like to show the world that I'm not
this downgraedy person that they portrayed me to be.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You ask her who she really is?
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Did she tell you annas organ is a very complicated character.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
You might believe that Annasaurican is a very gifted, clever
wanna be businesswoman or a complete con artist. And there
are many people in her way who would tell you
that she is the classic con artist.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Why can't she be both? Why can't she be a
great business person and the ultimate scammer? I see her
as both. Take a listen hour cut one from the
Vanity Fair special Scandalous.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
By twenty sixteen, Anna Delvey was a regular in the
NYC social scene, frequenting many popular downtown restaurants, bars, and clubs.
With an extravagant lifestyle and a seemingly endless supply of money.
Delvy was an enigma that was made for the age
of Instagram, always at the right place, with the right people,
living her best life, but with no apparent cause for
(05:08):
her fame.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
With Me, an all star panel to make sense of
what we know right now With Me Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags and hosts of Today with Doctor
Wendy KCBQ. If you can find her at wendypatrickphd dot com.
Doctor Donna Rockwell Special guests joining us clinical psychologists in
both Michigan and New York specializing in celebrity mental health
(05:33):
on faculty Saybrook University Jim Ellis with a special guest
joining US certified fraud examiner, former fed with the FBI.
Don't mess with this guy. FBI agent twenty nine years now,
private investigator at JKE Texas Private Investigator JKE Texas dot Com.
(05:54):
But first, I want to go to a woman I've
been dying to talk to, Rebecca Rosenberg with Fox News Digital.
She's a crime reporter and author of a fantastic book
At any Cost, Rebecca, who is this woman?
Speaker 9 (06:11):
Who is this woman? Well, her family came from Russia,
they moved to Germany, and I believe her father was
actually a truck driver. She did not come from a
wealthy family, and she just invented this identity when she came.
Speaker 10 (06:29):
To New York.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Now, her coming to New York was quite a story.
So Russian born moving to Germany, the child of a
truck driver. She ends up getting a job or an
internship that takes her to Paris. From there, the position
brings her to New York. I believe it was mon talk.
(06:53):
And then she very simply overstayed her visa, which thousands
of people do every year, but none do it in
the style of Anna Sorokan. Take a listen to Our
cut six our friends at Inside Edition.
Speaker 11 (07:07):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event?
Annasorrikin is accused of posing as an heiress to live
an extravagant lifestyle, But it's what she's wearing to trial
that is making headlines. The twenty seven year old defendant
showed up wearing a form fitting black dress with a
plunging neckline and choker necklace. It's a look that could
backfire Warren stylist John Karen.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Black dress definitely a no.
Speaker 12 (07:31):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
A hyper sexualize her. It makes her appear to be
like a seductress.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
The choker kind of shows to me that she's trying
to be overtly sexy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
The more sexy she appears to be, it hurts her.
Speaker 11 (07:45):
Soorkin is so obsessed with her clothes she refused to
enter the courtroom because the outfit she was given to
wear was not up to her standards. The angry judge
told her this is unacceptable and inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
This is not a fashion show. Wow, well you know,
but it didn't work. She continued wearing designer clothes to
every single court appears. But this goes way back her
desire for a lifestyle she could not afford. Started in
her teens. Take a listening our buddy Jesse Palmer at
Daily Mail TV.
Speaker 13 (08:16):
Anna, who interned at a trendy French magazine, reportedly managed
to scam extended stays in swanky Manhattan hotels, dinner at
high end restaurants, and flights on chartered jets to finance
her lavish lifestyle and keep the grift going. She allegedly
built banks out of thousands in cash. And that's not all.
(08:36):
The fake heiress reportedly fleees her friend out of sixty
two thousand dollars for a world class trip to Morocco.
But Anna went too far when she attempted to take
out a loan for twenty two million dollars to finance
a visual arts center she called the Anna Delvi Foundation.
In all, Anna reportedly scammed a total of two hundred
(08:57):
and seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Maybe it's just me, but to you Doctor Donna Rockwell
joining US clinical psychologist Faculty Saber University. Doctor Rockwell, I
don't know very many people except maybe Alois that lives
in hotels.
Speaker 14 (09:14):
No, I guess we don't really know many people who
live in hotels. But it's very posh, isn't it to
do that? She might be a eloise poser, I guess,
but you know that makes her look really unattainable and
like she's got lots of money. So I think people
in her situation will do anything they can to look
(09:35):
like they're billionaires, not even millionaires.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And Rebecca Rosenberg joining us in Fox News Digital. Rebecca,
she wasn't just staying down at the Motel six. She
was staying at very very expensive and luxurious hotels.
Speaker 9 (09:49):
Yes, she was staying at eleven Howard Street for a
very long time.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
Racked up a.
Speaker 9 (09:57):
Bill and that tens of thousands of dollars, and that's
where she lived here for a big chunk of the time.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
For the New York You know, it was really interesting
that she created this illusion that super rich and super
educated people fell for, and I guess you'd call it
New York society. Until she went and basically invited herself
(10:27):
to be on a yacht in a bisa and then
after everyone got off at the end of the vacation,
she and her boyfriend turned and get back on and
stay for another week or ten days. I mean, Jim
Ellis you're the certified fraud examiner, former FBI agent twenty
nine years. For beat's sake, When you commandeer a yacht
(10:51):
with a captain and a staff and all the food
and you're out at sea and the gas, that is
a huge bill.
Speaker 10 (11:01):
A huge bill. And frankly, you know, she probably could
have been stopped and exposed at that point if any
of these people along the way you lost money, who
got you know, enticed by her story and it actually
applied you know, reason and common sense at a certain point,
things wouldn't have gotten as far as they did.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, you know, that's really interesting. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags. You can hear her on today
with doctor Wendy k c b Q. Doctor Wendy, I
find it, Wendy Patrick, I find it really interesting that
the owners or the people that had rented the yacht
originally didn't go after her. Now the they we are
(11:49):
really really wealthy Hampton Nights And I got to tell
you something, Wendy, I've been to the Hamptons a couple
of times for charity when I would be speaking to
a group or raising money somehow or other. That's the
SAE Wendy. I couldn't wait till I packed up my
(12:11):
little rental car and got I mean, I knew I
was a dog upstairs. I did not get in. That
was not where I was supposed to be. And these
rich people that got ripped off but didn't report it,
whether they didn't want to look stupid or what. Yeah,
I know that's right, Nancy.
Speaker 14 (12:27):
I'm like you.
Speaker 10 (12:27):
I'm more I'm more familiar with the Hampton in with
the free breakfast.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I was stealing it. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So this is the this is the problem with the
super super rich. And it is a problem because financial
responsibility should be everyone's responsibility. But they probably either.
Speaker 14 (12:45):
Didn't know or didn't care.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Why do I say that, because we've covered so many
stories where you do have the ultra rich that are
scammed are defrauded.
Speaker 14 (12:54):
By somebody like Anna, but don't.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Consider it in the balance to be worth their while
to pursue it.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace welcome back. She claims she
quote doesn't want to be a spectacle. But the fake
German heiress Anna Delvey, who once claimed she was worth
sixty million dollars, is spotted completely glam to the max,
(13:26):
with hair and makeup and designer clothes to take out
her trash in her New York City apartment building. The
former jailbird spotted in a chic outfit taking out the trash,
an all black ensemble, including her be dazzled ankle monitor.
She's been promoting her new podcast, The Anna Delvey Show.
(13:50):
How Have I missed? That she was spotted emerging from
her Eastern Village apartment with a garbage bag. Unlike most
New Yorkers, including myself and my family, she opted for
a fully glammed look to take out the trash. Her
hair was beautifully blown out, healed black sandals, black stockings,
(14:13):
black mini dress accented with an oversized black belt, a
silver clutch, and several pieces of ornate gold jewelry hmm
all to take out the trash. It's been revealed that
Delviy was launching a podcast while under house arrest, called
(14:37):
The Anna Delviy Show. It will question quote traditional notions
of right and wrong, and she will ponder. She says
what it means to be a rule breaker translation of
Felon who swapped two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from friends.
(15:00):
Yes her, so now it's a rule breaker who's questioning
traditional views of right and wrong. Now I've heard about
the trailer to her new show, and she states, you
might recognize my name as a character in a Netflix series,
(15:21):
but now you get to meet the real me. I
think I met the real Hurr in court as her
friends and acquaintances talk about how she stole their money.
Delvie claims her new show will quote question traditional notions
of what is right and wrong, and it's recorded from
her four thousand dollars a month East Village apartment, four
(15:44):
thousand dollars a month, where she will tell, quote, the
craziest thing you've ever done for the sake of art. Okay,
can we get back to the ankle monitor that she
now says is too much of a spectacle that she'd
be dazzled. But let me give you a refresher on
(16:07):
Anna Delby what exactly happened. I'm not quite sure Rebecca
Rosenberg what her motivation is other than just living the
high life. But imagine the impact she could have made
being the daughter of a truck driver.
Speaker 15 (16:21):
I mean, I'm the daughter of a railroad worker and
a bank teller, and I know my parents work over
time to send me to college, send me to law school,
and so much more.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
She actually has a brilliant mind.
Speaker 14 (16:36):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 9 (16:36):
Don't think that if she had been honest about her origins, anybody,
the people that she was trying to hang out with
the New York that they would have really paid.
Speaker 10 (16:45):
Attention to her.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
We know she was born in Russia, grew up in Germany.
Her father worked at a transport company. It went and solvent.
At nineteen, she left her parents and brother for Paris
to decide to pursue fashion. She has only ever spoken
very vaguely of her parents, as she terms conservative. But
(17:07):
while she's in pair, she takes on the name Anna
Delvy and she shoots photographs for a fashion art magazine
named Purple. She only got four hundred euros a month,
and she stayed financially dependent on her parents, who would
send her money pay for her apartment. Then she had
(17:28):
a breakup, headed to New York and she went for
a trip to Montalk and then Fashion Week, and that
really did it. When she was at Fashion Week, there
was no suggestion she would ever turn back. She went
from boutique hotel to boutique hotel, always handing out crisp
(17:49):
one hundred dollar tips and putting off bills with promises
of wire transfers that never happened. So, Rebecca Rosenberg, we've
got the one victim, Rachel Deluche Williams. But that's two
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. What about all of
(18:09):
the hotels and all the other people she ripped off?
Speaker 9 (18:13):
A lot of people didn't come forward, And actually Rachel
Delows was really interesting because at the end Rachel actually
couldn't get paid restitution because the jury did not find
Soroken guilty of ripping her off. That was kind of
that was one of the charges they did not convict
on take a listen to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Our cut five b our friends at time.
Speaker 12 (18:37):
Prosecutor Catherine mcau says the defendant has not assent to
her name as far as we can determine, also noting
that Soroken is Russian born, not in German, though she
could be deported to Germany no matter how the trial
turns out, as she's reportedly overstayed her visa. Under the
name Anna Delvy, she arrived in New York with a
high priced wardrobe and was known for handing out one
(18:58):
hundred dollars cash tips, reportedly saying at different points that
her father was a diplomat and an oil baron or
involved in the solar panel business, none of which are
the case. People who knew her said she often asked
others to use their credit cards to cover cab and
plane fares and then failing to repay them.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Rebecca Rosenberg Netflix multi episode creation Inventing Anna. What is it?
Speaker 9 (19:23):
It's a show based on her life story, so based
on it kind of glamorizes her. I'd see her criminal
activity in New York which she was convicted, and she
sold her life rights to Netflix for them to do
the show.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So this woman cons she cons big Jim Ellis joining
us former fed with the FBI. Have you ever seen
anything like it where a person who is so obsessed
with a lifestyle or getting money actually has alternate identities
(20:03):
and scams and lies to even their closest friends, their lovers.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (20:08):
Absolutely, I mean in her heart and Astoric is a
con and she basically just cares about herself and she
doesn't care what's left in her wake. And I've seen
this through my career, both as an FBI agent and
as a private investigator. People act the same way. I'm
(20:30):
familiar with one con artist who dressed up. He's a
Southern Baptist boy from Louisiana, and he dresses stuff like
a Hasidic jew complete with clothing and makeup, so he
could go vouch to other people in the Jewish community
for himself. I mean, the people will go to no
(20:51):
ends to satisfy their greed, to satisfy their one for
fame and power.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
How do you untangle a case like this well.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
I mean, obviously from a law enforcement perspective, you don't
even know about it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So somebody who reports it, and I'm thinking about her personality,
she goes to trial. She goes to trial. I want
you to hear what the attorney said in court. Take
listen to our cut seven air PRIs at GMA.
Speaker 16 (21:19):
She had to fake it until she can make it.
Those words from the defendant's own attorney, who claim she
never intended to commit a crime, but prosecutors call her
a fraud and a liar who would do almost anything
to prolong her life of luxury. This morning, the fate
of an alleged scam artist is now in the hands
of a jury. Both sides wrapping up arguments for a
(21:42):
case that's drawn international outrage. The style savvy defendant even
turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress. She
called herself Anna Delvi, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors say
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a fairytale life of glitz and glnn. I'm among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Wow. Okay, take a listen to her and a soroken
in her own words our cut nine from the BBC.
Did you get a thrill from him?
Speaker 7 (22:12):
I mean, were you satisfied when you got away with something,
when you achieved something, when when you slipped under the
radar and didn't have to pay Was it thrilling?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Absolutely not, because in my head I never thought that
I was cheating or getting away with anything. In my head,
like any money that would borrow from them that would
be getting back. I felt like they portrayed me as
like someone who is very manipulative, which I don't think
I am. And I was never really like too nice
of a person. I was never like really trying to
talk my way into anything. I kind of just told
(22:41):
people what I want and like the either gave it
to me or not.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
And I just moved on. She taught them into what
she wanted through lines. I mean, donnad rockwell, we really
need a shrink. How can she take hundreds of thousands
of dollars in luxury hotels, clothing that she got her
friends to pay for, or racking up credit cards? She
should never pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in
(23:05):
credit cards, all based on lies. I mean, she had
to know that was wrong. She wasn't just faking it,
fake it till you make it. She was outright lying
for goods and services.
Speaker 14 (23:19):
Yes, she was outright lying. That's how we see it.
It's interesting, you know, because a person who has early
life narcissistic.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Wounds, okay, I see, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 14 (23:31):
What it means that someone is only really thinking about themselves.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You said a narcissistic wound. What's a narcissistic wound? I
know who narcissist is, but what's a narcissistic wound?
Speaker 14 (23:42):
When we're babies, If our mother or primary caretaker doesn't
look at us and say, who is a pretty baby?
Is a pretty baby? We don't know that we exist.
So without early life mirroring, meaning the parent or the
caregivers looking at you. You know you're existing, you're smiling back.
There becomes a deficit that develops in a person, and
(24:03):
that is who becomes a narcissist or a self serving
person in adulthood, and we probably know many of them
in our own lives. However, in the context of same,
there's something called acquired situational narcissism, which means that the
situations that we come into after we're a baby, in
(24:24):
other words, like Anna when she was in her nineteen
and in her twenties, is enough to turn us into
that kind of a person, meaning all for me and
none for you. And how does she get away with that?
She gets away with it because she's in denial, which
is a psychological coping mechanism. So the only way that
(24:44):
she can do these things is to not have a conscience,
to not think about it. So she has a sense
of acquired situational narcissism because of her situation, and then
wanted more of it and more of it and more
of it. And what people don't really understand about same
is that it is as addictive as heroine. The second
(25:05):
we get a taste of the spotlight, most of us
we want more and more and more. And that's what
happened with Anna. She was in denial. She was projecting
anything that she was thinking about herself on to other people.
She asked for what she wanted, as we just heard
on the tape, she got it or she didn't get it,
and she moved on. She did not have a conscience
(25:27):
to think about is this the right thing? Am I
hurting anybody? That's not how these people think. And it
became more and more and more because it's same is addictive.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, even though we spotted Anna Delby totally glammed up
in sheer black stockings in a black mini dress to
take out her trash hair blowing out full hair and makeup,
she abandoned her super glam look for a drab dressed down.
Why because she was meeting with her parole officer. Yes,
(25:57):
she looked very pit the full on her way to
meet her parole officer, but quick change, she looks like
a runway model to take out the trash and get photographed.
My question is why is she out walking free? She
hasn't paid her victims back with her bedazzled ankle monitor
(26:22):
and you know Wendy Pastick, she may have justified it
in her own mind, and certainly not defending her, because
this is irrational red. This is not reasoning, it's irrational.
She was taking from rich people in the Hamptons. I'm
talking to, like thirty million dollar homes with you know,
guest houses that are you know, bigger than our homes
(26:44):
or apartments. She was taking from someone that could afford it,
Like she overstayed on the yacht for a week because
somebody else much richer than her was paying for it.
So I wonder in her mind, is she justify it
that way?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Only? How did a very short amount of time with
something over all weekend or maybe even a week. But
the amount of time, the duration that this went on,
there was no conceivable way in her mind that she
possibly could have thought she would pay any of it back.
Speaker 14 (27:12):
You know, she may have faked it until she made
it when she first got.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
To New York, but when stealing money.
Speaker 14 (27:17):
From others over that period of time, faking it is fraud.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Hopefully that was a sound by somebody who's at her trial,
because there's no other way circumstantially you can justify that
many victims over that.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Long period of time, and even now it's still all
about her. Take a listen to our friend Emily mate
list at the BBC cuts in why do you think
so many people believed here?
Speaker 7 (27:40):
Then?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
What was it in your personality that could convince people?
Speaker 14 (27:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
I think maybe believed I was smart and I was
working on something.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
That was.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
That could have like a great potential and that would
be successful.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I don't feel like she has much to do with
my personality. I guess like I really believed in myself
and what I was doing. I don't know, it's hard
to explain. I guess like people just see like I'm
talented and I was focused, and I work hard and
I could make them a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Rebecca Rosenberg worked hard and what every time I see
AFO or a post of her, she's on a luxury
trip or she's shopping at what Well.
Speaker 14 (28:24):
I think.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
I think a lot of her victims wanted to believe
in her success because it meant their success too. You know,
she's saying, Okay, I'm going to build this Annadelvy Foundation
in Manhattan for twenty two million, and you know, one
of the persons, one of.
Speaker 14 (28:39):
The people she do with the architect.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
Well for him, you know, he he wanted to be
involved in that big project, so he wanted to sort
of believe the lie because it would ultimately help him.
So I think a lot of it was people wanting
to kind of believe it was true because there was
an advantage to them.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
These are just some of the things, and I want
to go to you on, Jim ellis that we have
uncovered falsifying financial documents from international banks wait for it,
totally approximately sixty million euros securing a loan of one
hundred grand after lying to bank reps with CTI, depositing
(29:20):
countless bad checks and to other banks. I guess you
know how you flow to check. You deposit a check,
you would draw the funds, and then you try to
short up from another bad account so that won't fall through,
and then another You basically play rop a dope on banks.
That was totally nearly eighty thousand dollars. That doesn't include
(29:44):
the money she conned off our friends, never paying them back,
theft of services almost a half a million dollars. I
mean that's a lot of money, Jim, Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 10 (29:58):
It's a lot of money. You mentioned earlier, you weren't
sure how she ever worked hard. She worked hard in
preparing all these fraudulent documents and passing all those bogus
checks and coming up with stories that were plausible but
yet not too specific. The life of the con is
(30:19):
hard work, and they do it for the for the power,
they do it for the money, They do it for
the same. I think she solved the banks as her
potential savior. You know, you think of of like Elizabeth
Holmes with Sarnos. You know, was she a genius or
was she a scam artist? You know, if if Sorkin
(30:43):
was able to produce all these phony documents and convince
a bank to lend her twenty two million dollars.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So why explain that to us, mere mortals? What do
you mean produce phony documents and convince big banks to
learn her a lots of money?
Speaker 10 (30:57):
Sure it happened. You know, she apparently was really adept
in Adobe photoshop. I mean she was taking documents and
altering them to convince the bankers that she had Swiss
bank accounts, that she had trust documents, and she had
lawyers and CPAs or accountants over in Europe, and it
(31:20):
was going at least to a certain extent, probably till
it hit the underwriting department, the people in the back
of the office who make sure everything's all the boxes
are checked. It was it was painting a picture of her,
of exactly who she was claiming to be. And I
think if she she probably she possibly could have felt
(31:43):
that if she was able to land that loan, in
her mind, she probably was going to pay all those
people back that she had scamped her in her mind.
It's in her mind, and she may have we don't know.
She's kicking the can down the road. She's getting her
next victim, and when that, when it comes time to
pay them back, she'll worry about that later. It's never ending.
(32:07):
I mean, it's what brings down every ponzee scheme in
the end. And this wasn't a large scale ponzee scheme.
But you know, some of that money she scammed through
those phony checks that she deposited with City Bank and
the loan she got from City National Bank, she used
to pay some of her debts that to the hotels
(32:31):
and other businesses so that she could stay afloat and
maintain that illusion.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Well, Jim Ellis, I guess what you're saying is she
would pay back the hotels to the extent that she
could get them to allow her to stay there for
even longer. I mean, what does it mean to Kyda check?
Speaker 10 (32:47):
Well, to kaya check? And it's a lot harder nowadays
than it used to be because the float, which is
the time that the check is deposited in the one
bank and actually clears in the originating bank, it's so
much shorter. But you you basically taken a check and
you present it to a bank that you know is worthless,
(33:08):
or it may appear it has funds, but by the
time that check is presented for payment to the originating bank,
there aren't any.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Fund crime stories with Nancy Grace. In addition to whining
about her ankle monitor being unfashionable and a quote spectacle,
Delvy also has filed a bid to end her quote
(33:38):
draconian house arrest, claiming she has suffered quote severe emotional
distress and stress in her four thousand, two hundred and
fifty dollars a month New York apartment. Who is she
take a listen to our friends at GMA Good Morning
America in New.
Speaker 16 (33:57):
York City, Jury Finding, Social Life and asaur again a
so called SOHO grifter guilty on eight counts, including grand larceny,
attempted grand larcity, and theft of services.
Speaker 13 (34:08):
The jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed
our logic and acquitted her for the top charges.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I'm sad and that she was convicted of some of
the other charges.
Speaker 16 (34:17):
Sorgan was acquitted of two charges, including the most serious,
attempting to steal more than one million dollars from City
National Bank.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Jay re Mecca Rosenburg joining us from Foxy's Digital explaining
the split verdict. What was she convicted on and on
what was she acquitted?
Speaker 9 (34:32):
She was acquitted on trying to score this massive twenty
million dollars loan.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Which was one of the top charges.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
That was the attempted grand larceny, and she was acquitted
of stealing the number kind of varied, but around seventy
thousand from Rachel Deloche. That was the trip that she
invited her best friend at the time, Richard Deloshwan to Morocco,
where they stayed in the seven thousand a night riodd
in outside Americash and at the end of the trip
(35:01):
she stuck her with the bill. She persuaded her to
put the entire show on her credit card and she
would pay her back. So those were the two main
counts she was acquitted on and then she was convicted
in she was convicted in the chartered plane incident.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Right, well, let me let that side. Canra Becca Eisenberg?
The chartered plane incident? What was that?
Speaker 9 (35:27):
So it was called Blade is the company, and she
persuaded them to fly her without paying up front to
a Berkshire Hathaway conference in Omaha and basically was like,
I'll pay you later, and they thought she'd paid them
later and she didn't. And that was about thirty five
thousand dollars. It was a chartered flight.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
A chartered flight incident. Okay, so she ends up going
to not just jail, but to wrike her. Is anybody
on the panel familiar with rikers? Okay?
Speaker 14 (36:05):
Yeah, just my reputation.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, you don't want to go there unless you have
to take a Listen to Anna Sorokan speaking to our
friend Debora Roberts at ABC.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Dorekan says she's paid for her mistakes, her time behind bars,
including nineteen months in New York's infamous Writers Island, jailed,
some of it in solitary confinement, you're being held in
Rikers one of the most frightening jails in the country.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
What was that like for you? Were you terrified in a.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Way that was therapeutic?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I mean it's a therapeutic I.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
For example, use the time, like to read a lot
and to write.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
You've heard that, you've said that it's the prison's kind
of a waste of time.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
Yeah, taking a person, straping them off everything, putting them
somewhere where they have pretty much very few opportunities to rehabilitate.
So how is this supposed to help someone who already
had to reach to life of crime?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And that tells me right there that Anna Delvy aka
Anna Sorokan learned nothing from our time behind bars, Wendy
Patrick nothing.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
It also tells us that she is admitting that she
resorted to a life of crime, which contradicts everything she
said before the trial and even in some interviews after
the trial. She knew because she wasn't working, as you
pointed out several times, there was no way she was
going to be able to repay these loans. But sitting
through the trial, sitting.
Speaker 14 (37:30):
In Riker's Island prison therapeutic.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
You have to wonder whether she received special treatment. We
don't know one way or the other, but it is
very interesting that her attitude apparently hasn't changed.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I'm sure she got special treatment because she had managed
to convince everyone that she was a celebrity that deserves
special treatment, you know, Rebecca Rosenberg. I'm not sure I
understand the not guilty on the sixty grand she ripped
off from Rachel Delighth Williams. What was the jerry's thinking.
Speaker 9 (37:58):
Well, I spoke to a couple full of jurors after
the verdict and they kind of felt that in the end,
Rachel came out ahead, even though it was this like
really stressful situation for her where she had put the
payment for this trip on her work visa card and
just you know, it was a sum of money that
(38:19):
was greater than what she earned.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
As a salary.
Speaker 10 (38:22):
But eventually, you know, she did.
Speaker 9 (38:27):
She did end up with I think her book advance
was three hundred thousand dollars. I don't know what she
got paid from HBO. So I think that they just
didn't feel that bad for her.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
But why because why do they not feel bad for
Rachel Williams.
Speaker 9 (38:41):
Because she was also using Anna Soroken. You could say
like she, you know, it's sort of weird, like she's
going out with Anna all the time, and Anna it's
always paying for absolutely everything. You know, I personally wouldn't
feel that comfortable if I was going out with somebody,
even if they were much wealthier than me, with them
(39:01):
flitting the bill every time. So I think that was
kind of their reasoning.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Take a listen to what happens immediately when she walks
out from behind bars ar cut fourteen, Inside edition.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
If you walked out of prison a free woman, high
on a it was the first thing you did that.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Brought me my phone, So I got on social media.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
She came out of prison and immediately sat down to
do this interview with us, and immediately went on social
media and immediately started to resume kind of a glamorous life.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
So the first thing she does is on social media.
What does that tell you, doctor Rockwell, the same thing.
Speaker 14 (39:40):
And tell of you, doctor Gray, that she didn't feel
all bad about one thing through this entire event, that
there's a lack of conscience, and that she was loving
the spotlight and she couldn't wait to get back into it.
As I say, it's an addiction. It makes the hormones
flash in your mind, you have do fan. Your brain
(40:01):
comes alive with your own image, and you love it,
you salivate over it. And that's what happened to Panna Sorkin.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Jim Ellis certified Fraught Examiner, are now with his own
firm JKE Texas dot Com. Jim shopaholics or people that
get a thrill out of buying things. I think Anna
Sorokan aka n Anna Delvey got a thrill of some
sort of this fake life she was leading. Do you
(40:32):
think someone like her can turn over a new leaf
or is this just who she is?
Speaker 10 (40:39):
Well, that's a good question. I mean, I always hope
I did.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Say what you hope. Jim Ellis, you investigated so many
con guys, what do you think they don't stop?
Speaker 10 (40:51):
I mean, as you pointed out, she immediately got back
on social media. And I agree with doctor Rockwell that
it was for the endorphin rush of getting that hit,
of getting that fame and putting out that projection. But
I think it's also a certain aspect that is rebuilding
her stature so that she can now see where she
(41:16):
can get her next meal ticket from. But who in
the right mind would want to work with somebody that
just got out of prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands
of dollars from the people she was closest to.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Wow, Okay, this woman apparently has no shame. Instead of
trying to pay back her victims, she's whining about her
bedazzled ankle monitor. Well, with this woman, it never ends.
(41:53):
Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace does the name Anna Delvi
ring a bell the fake Heiress aka Anna Sorkin, who
claimed to be a Russian heiress and worth millions of dollars,
(00:23):
But what she did is rip off friends and business
acquaintances to the ten of tens of thousands of dollars,
possibly up to a quarter million dollars. Well, it ain't
over yet. In the last days, the fake Heiress Anna
(00:44):
Delvi says she doesn't want to be a quote spectacle. Really,
since when she doesn't want to be a quote spectacle
with her be dazzled ankle monitor, I mean, is he Grace?
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
(01:04):
Anna Delvi, who we believe ripped off friends, acquaintances, and
business connections up to the tune of around two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, convincing all these people she was
a fake Russian heiress. Oh, dear Lord in Heaven now
claims wearing her ankle monitor is a quote pain and
(01:32):
she's lodging constant complaints about her ankle monitor. The choice
is going back to jail Anna Delvi aka and Asorkin,
but the fake Heiress tells the new York Post. It's
not about style. She just doesn't want to be stared at.
Really doesn't want to be stared at. That's all she
(01:52):
wants is to be stared at. Delvi again, whose real
name is Annasorkin, has been forced to wear the GPS
tracker since she was released from US Immigration and Customs
on a ten thousand dollars bond back in October twenty
twenty two. This is while she fights being deported back
(02:13):
to Germany. Every month she has to check in with
ICE in New York and she's been a quote real
pain in the ass end quote constantly complaining the device
is quote not fashionable. I can't believe I'm hearing this.
Does it never end with this woman? Now? This is
(02:34):
according to the US Department of Homeland Security. But Delvy,
who was the inspiration for a Netflix special nine episodes,
as I recall that I was forced to watch my
eyes were bleeding to prepare to cover the case, and
since that, she just doesn't want to be a spectacle
that comes with wearing an ankle monitor. Let's refresh our recollection.
(02:57):
Who is Annadelvi? Why does she claims she's a fake heiress?
Her real name is Annasorkin. Why doesn't she acknowledge she
actually has real parents back home in Germany? And how
did she rip off New York society to the tune
of about a quarter million dollars? Now complaining her ankle
(03:19):
monitor is quote not fashionable? What happened? Art aside? Take
a listen to Inside edition.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
She claims she was a wealthy heiress from Europe worth
more than sixty million dollars, but it was a lie.
Annasorkin went to prison for two years for defrauding banks, hotels,
and even her closest friends out of hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Her trial drew international attention.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
This woman made national headlines posing as a wealthy woman.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Now, the woman known as the SOHO Grifter is speaking
to ABC's Debra Rubber.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
This is the first time you've sat down for television interview.
Why are you talking with us?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Why not?
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I would like to show the world that I'm not
this downgraedy person that they portrayed me to be.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You ask her who she really is?
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Did she tell you annas organ is a very complicated character.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
You might believe that Annasaurican is a very gifted, clever
wanna be businesswoman or a complete con artist. And there
are many people in her way who would tell you
that she is the classic con artist.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Why can't she be both? Why can't she be a
great business person and the ultimate scammer? I see her
as both. Take a listen hour cut one from the
Vanity Fair special Scandalous.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
By twenty sixteen, Anna Delvey was a regular in the
NYC social scene, frequenting many popular downtown restaurants, bars, and clubs.
With an extravagant lifestyle and a seemingly endless supply of money.
Delvy was an enigma that was made for the age
of Instagram, always at the right place, with the right people,
living her best life, but with no apparent cause for
(05:08):
her fame.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
With Me, an all star panel to make sense of
what we know right now With Me Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags and hosts of Today with Doctor
Wendy KCBQ. If you can find her at wendypatrickphd dot com.
Doctor Donna Rockwell Special guests joining us clinical psychologists in
both Michigan and New York specializing in celebrity mental health
(05:33):
on faculty Saybrook University Jim Ellis with a special guest
joining US certified fraud examiner, former fed with the FBI.
Don't mess with this guy. FBI agent twenty nine years now,
private investigator at JKE Texas Private Investigator JKE Texas dot Com.
(05:54):
But first, I want to go to a woman I've
been dying to talk to, Rebecca Rosenberg with Fox News Digital.
She's a crime reporter and author of a fantastic book
At any Cost, Rebecca, who is this woman?
Speaker 9 (06:11):
Who is this woman? Well, her family came from Russia,
they moved to Germany, and I believe her father was
actually a truck driver. She did not come from a
wealthy family, and she just invented this identity when she came.
Speaker 10 (06:29):
To New York.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Now, her coming to New York was quite a story.
So Russian born moving to Germany, the child of a
truck driver. She ends up getting a job or an
internship that takes her to Paris. From there, the position
brings her to New York. I believe it was mon talk.
(06:53):
And then she very simply overstayed her visa, which thousands
of people do every year, but none do it in
the style of Anna Sorokan. Take a listen to Our
cut six our friends at Inside Edition.
Speaker 11 (07:07):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event?
Annasorrikin is accused of posing as an heiress to live
an extravagant lifestyle, But it's what she's wearing to trial
that is making headlines. The twenty seven year old defendant
showed up wearing a form fitting black dress with a
plunging neckline and choker necklace. It's a look that could
backfire Warren stylist John Karen.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Black dress definitely a no.
Speaker 12 (07:31):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
A hyper sexualize her. It makes her appear to be
like a seductress.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
The choker kind of shows to me that she's trying
to be overtly sexy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
The more sexy she appears to be, it hurts her.
Speaker 11 (07:45):
Soorkin is so obsessed with her clothes she refused to
enter the courtroom because the outfit she was given to
wear was not up to her standards. The angry judge
told her this is unacceptable and inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
This is not a fashion show. Wow, well you know,
but it didn't work. She continued wearing designer clothes to
every single court appears. But this goes way back her
desire for a lifestyle she could not afford. Started in
her teens. Take a listening our buddy Jesse Palmer at
Daily Mail TV.
Speaker 13 (08:16):
Anna, who interned at a trendy French magazine, reportedly managed
to scam extended stays in swanky Manhattan hotels, dinner at
high end restaurants, and flights on chartered jets to finance
her lavish lifestyle and keep the grift going. She allegedly
built banks out of thousands in cash. And that's not all.
(08:36):
The fake heiress reportedly fleees her friend out of sixty
two thousand dollars for a world class trip to Morocco.
But Anna went too far when she attempted to take
out a loan for twenty two million dollars to finance
a visual arts center she called the Anna Delvi Foundation.
In all, Anna reportedly scammed a total of two hundred
(08:57):
and seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Maybe it's just me, but to you Doctor Donna Rockwell
joining US clinical psychologist Faculty Saber University. Doctor Rockwell, I
don't know very many people except maybe Alois that lives
in hotels.
Speaker 14 (09:14):
No, I guess we don't really know many people who
live in hotels. But it's very posh, isn't it to
do that? She might be a eloise poser, I guess,
but you know that makes her look really unattainable and
like she's got lots of money. So I think people
in her situation will do anything they can to look
(09:35):
like they're billionaires, not even millionaires.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And Rebecca Rosenberg joining us in Fox News Digital. Rebecca,
she wasn't just staying down at the Motel six. She
was staying at very very expensive and luxurious hotels.
Speaker 9 (09:49):
Yes, she was staying at eleven Howard Street for a
very long time.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
Racked up a.
Speaker 9 (09:57):
Bill and that tens of thousands of dollars, and that's
where she lived here for a big chunk of the time.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
For the New York You know, it was really interesting
that she created this illusion that super rich and super
educated people fell for, and I guess you'd call it
New York society. Until she went and basically invited herself
(10:27):
to be on a yacht in a bisa and then
after everyone got off at the end of the vacation,
she and her boyfriend turned and get back on and
stay for another week or ten days. I mean, Jim
Ellis you're the certified fraud examiner, former FBI agent twenty
nine years. For beat's sake, When you commandeer a yacht
(10:51):
with a captain and a staff and all the food
and you're out at sea and the gas, that is
a huge bill.
Speaker 10 (11:01):
A huge bill. And frankly, you know, she probably could
have been stopped and exposed at that point if any
of these people along the way you lost money, who
got you know, enticed by her story and it actually
applied you know, reason and common sense at a certain point,
things wouldn't have gotten as far as they did.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, you know, that's really interesting. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags. You can hear her on today
with doctor Wendy k c b Q. Doctor Wendy, I
find it, Wendy Patrick, I find it really interesting that
the owners or the people that had rented the yacht
originally didn't go after her. Now the they we are
(11:49):
really really wealthy Hampton Nights And I got to tell
you something, Wendy, I've been to the Hamptons a couple
of times for charity when I would be speaking to
a group or raising money somehow or other. That's the
SAE Wendy. I couldn't wait till I packed up my
(12:11):
little rental car and got I mean, I knew I
was a dog upstairs. I did not get in. That
was not where I was supposed to be. And these
rich people that got ripped off but didn't report it,
whether they didn't want to look stupid or what. Yeah,
I know that's right, Nancy.
Speaker 14 (12:27):
I'm like you.
Speaker 10 (12:27):
I'm more I'm more familiar with the Hampton in with
the free breakfast.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I was stealing it. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So this is the this is the problem with the
super super rich. And it is a problem because financial
responsibility should be everyone's responsibility. But they probably either.
Speaker 14 (12:45):
Didn't know or didn't care.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Why do I say that, because we've covered so many
stories where you do have the ultra rich that are
scammed are defrauded.
Speaker 14 (12:54):
By somebody like Anna, but don't.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Consider it in the balance to be worth their while
to pursue it.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace welcome back. She claims she
quote doesn't want to be a spectacle. But the fake
German heiress Anna Delvey, who once claimed she was worth
sixty million dollars, is spotted completely glam to the max,
(13:26):
with hair and makeup and designer clothes to take out
her trash in her New York City apartment building. The
former jailbird spotted in a chic outfit taking out the trash,
an all black ensemble, including her be dazzled ankle monitor.
She's been promoting her new podcast, The Anna Delvey Show.
(13:50):
How Have I missed? That she was spotted emerging from
her Eastern Village apartment with a garbage bag. Unlike most
New Yorkers, including myself and my family, she opted for
a fully glammed look to take out the trash. Her
hair was beautifully blown out, healed black sandals, black stockings,
(14:13):
black mini dress accented with an oversized black belt, a
silver clutch, and several pieces of ornate gold jewelry hmm
all to take out the trash. It's been revealed that
Delviy was launching a podcast while under house arrest, called
(14:37):
The Anna Delviy Show. It will question quote traditional notions
of right and wrong, and she will ponder. She says
what it means to be a rule breaker translation of
Felon who swapped two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from friends.
(15:00):
Yes her, so now it's a rule breaker who's questioning
traditional views of right and wrong. Now I've heard about
the trailer to her new show, and she states, you
might recognize my name as a character in a Netflix series,
(15:21):
but now you get to meet the real me. I
think I met the real Hurr in court as her
friends and acquaintances talk about how she stole their money.
Delvie claims her new show will quote question traditional notions
of what is right and wrong, and it's recorded from
her four thousand dollars a month East Village apartment, four
(15:44):
thousand dollars a month, where she will tell, quote, the
craziest thing you've ever done for the sake of art. Okay,
can we get back to the ankle monitor that she
now says is too much of a spectacle that she'd
be dazzled. But let me give you a refresher on
(16:07):
Anna Delby what exactly happened. I'm not quite sure Rebecca
Rosenberg what her motivation is other than just living the
high life. But imagine the impact she could have made
being the daughter of a truck driver.
Speaker 15 (16:21):
I mean, I'm the daughter of a railroad worker and
a bank teller, and I know my parents work over
time to send me to college, send me to law school,
and so much more.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
She actually has a brilliant mind.
Speaker 14 (16:36):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 9 (16:36):
Don't think that if she had been honest about her origins, anybody,
the people that she was trying to hang out with
the New York that they would have really paid.
Speaker 10 (16:45):
Attention to her.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
We know she was born in Russia, grew up in Germany.
Her father worked at a transport company. It went and solvent.
At nineteen, she left her parents and brother for Paris
to decide to pursue fashion. She has only ever spoken
very vaguely of her parents, as she terms conservative. But
(17:07):
while she's in pair, she takes on the name Anna
Delvy and she shoots photographs for a fashion art magazine
named Purple. She only got four hundred euros a month,
and she stayed financially dependent on her parents, who would
send her money pay for her apartment. Then she had
(17:28):
a breakup, headed to New York and she went for
a trip to Montalk and then Fashion Week, and that
really did it. When she was at Fashion Week, there
was no suggestion she would ever turn back. She went
from boutique hotel to boutique hotel, always handing out crisp
(17:49):
one hundred dollar tips and putting off bills with promises
of wire transfers that never happened. So, Rebecca Rosenberg, we've
got the one victim, Rachel Deluche Williams. But that's two
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. What about all of
(18:09):
the hotels and all the other people she ripped off?
Speaker 9 (18:13):
A lot of people didn't come forward, And actually Rachel
Delows was really interesting because at the end Rachel actually
couldn't get paid restitution because the jury did not find
Soroken guilty of ripping her off. That was kind of
that was one of the charges they did not convict
on take a listen to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Our cut five b our friends at time.
Speaker 12 (18:37):
Prosecutor Catherine mcau says the defendant has not assent to
her name as far as we can determine, also noting
that Soroken is Russian born, not in German, though she
could be deported to Germany no matter how the trial
turns out, as she's reportedly overstayed her visa. Under the
name Anna Delvy, she arrived in New York with a
high priced wardrobe and was known for handing out one
(18:58):
hundred dollars cash tips, reportedly saying at different points that
her father was a diplomat and an oil baron or
involved in the solar panel business, none of which are
the case. People who knew her said she often asked
others to use their credit cards to cover cab and
plane fares and then failing to repay them.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Rebecca Rosenberg Netflix multi episode creation Inventing Anna. What is it?
Speaker 9 (19:23):
It's a show based on her life story, so based
on it kind of glamorizes her. I'd see her criminal
activity in New York which she was convicted, and she
sold her life rights to Netflix for them to do
the show.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So this woman cons she cons big Jim Ellis joining
us former fed with the FBI. Have you ever seen
anything like it where a person who is so obsessed
with a lifestyle or getting money actually has alternate identities
(20:03):
and scams and lies to even their closest friends, their lovers.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (20:08):
Absolutely, I mean in her heart and Astoric is a
con and she basically just cares about herself and she
doesn't care what's left in her wake. And I've seen
this through my career, both as an FBI agent and
as a private investigator. People act the same way. I'm
(20:30):
familiar with one con artist who dressed up. He's a
Southern Baptist boy from Louisiana, and he dresses stuff like
a Hasidic jew complete with clothing and makeup, so he
could go vouch to other people in the Jewish community
for himself. I mean, the people will go to no
(20:51):
ends to satisfy their greed, to satisfy their one for
fame and power.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
How do you untangle a case like this well.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
I mean, obviously from a law enforcement perspective, you don't
even know about it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So somebody who reports it, and I'm thinking about her personality,
she goes to trial. She goes to trial. I want
you to hear what the attorney said in court. Take
listen to our cut seven air PRIs at GMA.
Speaker 16 (21:19):
She had to fake it until she can make it.
Those words from the defendant's own attorney, who claim she
never intended to commit a crime, but prosecutors call her
a fraud and a liar who would do almost anything
to prolong her life of luxury. This morning, the fate
of an alleged scam artist is now in the hands
of a jury. Both sides wrapping up arguments for a
(21:42):
case that's drawn international outrage. The style savvy defendant even
turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress. She
called herself Anna Delvi, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors say
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a fairytale life of glitz and glnn. I'm among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Wow. Okay, take a listen to her and a soroken
in her own words our cut nine from the BBC.
Did you get a thrill from him?
Speaker 7 (22:12):
I mean, were you satisfied when you got away with something,
when you achieved something, when when you slipped under the
radar and didn't have to pay Was it thrilling?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Absolutely not, because in my head I never thought that
I was cheating or getting away with anything. In my head,
like any money that would borrow from them that would
be getting back. I felt like they portrayed me as
like someone who is very manipulative, which I don't think
I am. And I was never really like too nice
of a person. I was never like really trying to
talk my way into anything. I kind of just told
(22:41):
people what I want and like the either gave it
to me or not.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
And I just moved on. She taught them into what
she wanted through lines. I mean, donnad rockwell, we really
need a shrink. How can she take hundreds of thousands
of dollars in luxury hotels, clothing that she got her
friends to pay for, or racking up credit cards? She
should never pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in
(23:05):
credit cards, all based on lies. I mean, she had
to know that was wrong. She wasn't just faking it,
fake it till you make it. She was outright lying
for goods and services.
Speaker 14 (23:19):
Yes, she was outright lying. That's how we see it.
It's interesting, you know, because a person who has early
life narcissistic.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Wounds, okay, I see, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 14 (23:31):
What it means that someone is only really thinking about themselves.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You said a narcissistic wound. What's a narcissistic wound? I
know who narcissist is, but what's a narcissistic wound?
Speaker 14 (23:42):
When we're babies, If our mother or primary caretaker doesn't
look at us and say, who is a pretty baby?
Is a pretty baby? We don't know that we exist.
So without early life mirroring, meaning the parent or the
caregivers looking at you. You know you're existing, you're smiling back.
There becomes a deficit that develops in a person, and
(24:03):
that is who becomes a narcissist or a self serving
person in adulthood, and we probably know many of them
in our own lives. However, in the context of same,
there's something called acquired situational narcissism, which means that the
situations that we come into after we're a baby, in
(24:24):
other words, like Anna when she was in her nineteen
and in her twenties, is enough to turn us into
that kind of a person, meaning all for me and
none for you. And how does she get away with that?
She gets away with it because she's in denial, which
is a psychological coping mechanism. So the only way that
(24:44):
she can do these things is to not have a conscience,
to not think about it. So she has a sense
of acquired situational narcissism because of her situation, and then
wanted more of it and more of it and more
of it. And what people don't really understand about same
is that it is as addictive as heroine. The second
(25:05):
we get a taste of the spotlight, most of us
we want more and more and more. And that's what
happened with Anna. She was in denial. She was projecting
anything that she was thinking about herself on to other people.
She asked for what she wanted, as we just heard
on the tape, she got it or she didn't get it,
and she moved on. She did not have a conscience
(25:27):
to think about is this the right thing? Am I
hurting anybody? That's not how these people think. And it
became more and more and more because it's same is addictive.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, even though we spotted Anna Delby totally glammed up
in sheer black stockings in a black mini dress to
take out her trash hair blowing out full hair and makeup,
she abandoned her super glam look for a drab dressed down.
Why because she was meeting with her parole officer. Yes,
(25:57):
she looked very pit the full on her way to
meet her parole officer, but quick change, she looks like
a runway model to take out the trash and get photographed.
My question is why is she out walking free? She
hasn't paid her victims back with her bedazzled ankle monitor
(26:22):
and you know Wendy Pastick, she may have justified it
in her own mind, and certainly not defending her, because
this is irrational red. This is not reasoning, it's irrational.
She was taking from rich people in the Hamptons. I'm
talking to, like thirty million dollar homes with you know,
guest houses that are you know, bigger than our homes
(26:44):
or apartments. She was taking from someone that could afford it,
Like she overstayed on the yacht for a week because
somebody else much richer than her was paying for it.
So I wonder in her mind, is she justify it
that way?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Only? How did a very short amount of time with
something over all weekend or maybe even a week. But
the amount of time, the duration that this went on,
there was no conceivable way in her mind that she
possibly could have thought she would pay any of it back.
Speaker 14 (27:12):
You know, she may have faked it until she made
it when she first got.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
To New York, but when stealing money.
Speaker 14 (27:17):
From others over that period of time, faking it is fraud.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Hopefully that was a sound by somebody who's at her trial,
because there's no other way circumstantially you can justify that
many victims over that.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Long period of time, and even now it's still all
about her. Take a listen to our friend Emily mate
list at the BBC cuts in why do you think
so many people believed here?
Speaker 7 (27:40):
Then?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
What was it in your personality that could convince people?
Speaker 14 (27:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
I think maybe believed I was smart and I was
working on something.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
That was.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
That could have like a great potential and that would
be successful.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
I don't feel like she has much to do with
my personality. I guess like I really believed in myself
and what I was doing. I don't know, it's hard
to explain. I guess like people just see like I'm
talented and I was focused, and I work hard and
I could make them a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Rebecca Rosenberg worked hard and what every time I see
AFO or a post of her, she's on a luxury
trip or she's shopping at what Well.
Speaker 14 (28:24):
I think.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
I think a lot of her victims wanted to believe
in her success because it meant their success too. You know,
she's saying, Okay, I'm going to build this Annadelvy Foundation
in Manhattan for twenty two million, and you know, one
of the persons, one of.
Speaker 14 (28:39):
The people she do with the architect.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
Well for him, you know, he he wanted to be
involved in that big project, so he wanted to sort
of believe the lie because it would ultimately help him.
So I think a lot of it was people wanting
to kind of believe it was true because there was
an advantage to them.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
These are just some of the things, and I want
to go to you on, Jim ellis that we have
uncovered falsifying financial documents from international banks wait for it,
totally approximately sixty million euros securing a loan of one
hundred grand after lying to bank reps with CTI, depositing
(29:20):
countless bad checks and to other banks. I guess you
know how you flow to check. You deposit a check,
you would draw the funds, and then you try to
short up from another bad account so that won't fall through,
and then another You basically play rop a dope on banks.
That was totally nearly eighty thousand dollars. That doesn't include
(29:44):
the money she conned off our friends, never paying them back,
theft of services almost a half a million dollars. I
mean that's a lot of money, Jim, Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 10 (29:58):
It's a lot of money. You mentioned earlier, you weren't
sure how she ever worked hard. She worked hard in
preparing all these fraudulent documents and passing all those bogus
checks and coming up with stories that were plausible but
yet not too specific. The life of the con is
(30:19):
hard work, and they do it for the for the power,
they do it for the money, They do it for
the same. I think she solved the banks as her
potential savior. You know, you think of of like Elizabeth
Holmes with Sarnos. You know, was she a genius or
was she a scam artist? You know, if if Sorkin
(30:43):
was able to produce all these phony documents and convince
a bank to lend her twenty two million dollars.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So why explain that to us, mere mortals? What do
you mean produce phony documents and convince big banks to
learn her a lots of money?
Speaker 10 (30:57):
Sure it happened. You know, she apparently was really adept
in Adobe photoshop. I mean she was taking documents and
altering them to convince the bankers that she had Swiss
bank accounts, that she had trust documents, and she had
lawyers and CPAs or accountants over in Europe, and it
(31:20):
was going at least to a certain extent, probably till
it hit the underwriting department, the people in the back
of the office who make sure everything's all the boxes
are checked. It was it was painting a picture of her,
of exactly who she was claiming to be. And I
think if she she probably she possibly could have felt
(31:43):
that if she was able to land that loan, in
her mind, she probably was going to pay all those
people back that she had scamped her in her mind.
It's in her mind, and she may have we don't know.
She's kicking the can down the road. She's getting her
next victim, and when that, when it comes time to
pay them back, she'll worry about that later. It's never ending.
(32:07):
I mean, it's what brings down every ponzee scheme in
the end. And this wasn't a large scale ponzee scheme.
But you know, some of that money she scammed through
those phony checks that she deposited with City Bank and
the loan she got from City National Bank, she used
to pay some of her debts that to the hotels
(32:31):
and other businesses so that she could stay afloat and
maintain that illusion.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Well, Jim Ellis, I guess what you're saying is she
would pay back the hotels to the extent that she
could get them to allow her to stay there for
even longer. I mean, what does it mean to Kyda check?
Speaker 10 (32:47):
Well, to kaya check? And it's a lot harder nowadays
than it used to be because the float, which is
the time that the check is deposited in the one
bank and actually clears in the originating bank, it's so
much shorter. But you you basically taken a check and
you present it to a bank that you know is worthless,
(33:08):
or it may appear it has funds, but by the
time that check is presented for payment to the originating bank,
there aren't any.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Fund crime stories with Nancy Grace. In addition to whining
about her ankle monitor being unfashionable and a quote spectacle,
Delvy also has filed a bid to end her quote
(33:38):
draconian house arrest, claiming she has suffered quote severe emotional
distress and stress in her four thousand, two hundred and
fifty dollars a month New York apartment. Who is she
take a listen to our friends at GMA Good Morning
America in New.
Speaker 16 (33:57):
York City, Jury Finding, Social Life and asaur again a
so called SOHO grifter guilty on eight counts, including grand larceny,
attempted grand larcity, and theft of services.
Speaker 13 (34:08):
The jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed
our logic and acquitted her for the top charges.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I'm sad and that she was convicted of some of
the other charges.
Speaker 16 (34:17):
Sorgan was acquitted of two charges, including the most serious,
attempting to steal more than one million dollars from City
National Bank.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Jay re Mecca Rosenburg joining us from Foxy's Digital explaining
the split verdict. What was she convicted on and on
what was she acquitted?
Speaker 9 (34:32):
She was acquitted on trying to score this massive twenty
million dollars loan.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Which was one of the top charges.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
That was the attempted grand larceny, and she was acquitted
of stealing the number kind of varied, but around seventy
thousand from Rachel Deloche. That was the trip that she
invited her best friend at the time, Richard Deloshwan to Morocco,
where they stayed in the seven thousand a night riodd
in outside Americash and at the end of the trip
(35:01):
she stuck her with the bill. She persuaded her to
put the entire show on her credit card and she
would pay her back. So those were the two main
counts she was acquitted on and then she was convicted
in she was convicted in the chartered plane incident.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Right, well, let me let that side. Canra Becca Eisenberg?
The chartered plane incident? What was that?
Speaker 9 (35:27):
So it was called Blade is the company, and she
persuaded them to fly her without paying up front to
a Berkshire Hathaway conference in Omaha and basically was like,
I'll pay you later, and they thought she'd paid them
later and she didn't. And that was about thirty five
thousand dollars. It was a chartered flight.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
A chartered flight incident. Okay, so she ends up going
to not just jail, but to wrike her. Is anybody
on the panel familiar with rikers? Okay?
Speaker 14 (36:05):
Yeah, just my reputation.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, you don't want to go there unless you have
to take a Listen to Anna Sorokan speaking to our
friend Debora Roberts at ABC.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Dorekan says she's paid for her mistakes, her time behind bars,
including nineteen months in New York's infamous Writers Island, jailed,
some of it in solitary confinement, you're being held in
Rikers one of the most frightening jails in the country.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
What was that like for you? Were you terrified in a.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Way that was therapeutic?
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I mean it's a therapeutic I.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
For example, use the time, like to read a lot
and to write.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
You've heard that, you've said that it's the prison's kind
of a waste of time.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
Yeah, taking a person, straping them off everything, putting them
somewhere where they have pretty much very few opportunities to rehabilitate.
So how is this supposed to help someone who already
had to reach to life of crime?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And that tells me right there that Anna Delvy aka
Anna Sorokan learned nothing from our time behind bars, Wendy
Patrick nothing.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
It also tells us that she is admitting that she
resorted to a life of crime, which contradicts everything she
said before the trial and even in some interviews after
the trial. She knew because she wasn't working, as you
pointed out several times, there was no way she was
going to be able to repay these loans. But sitting
through the trial, sitting.
Speaker 14 (37:30):
In Riker's Island prison therapeutic.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
You have to wonder whether she received special treatment. We
don't know one way or the other, but it is
very interesting that her attitude apparently hasn't changed.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I'm sure she got special treatment because she had managed
to convince everyone that she was a celebrity that deserves
special treatment, you know, Rebecca Rosenberg. I'm not sure I
understand the not guilty on the sixty grand she ripped
off from Rachel Delighth Williams. What was the jerry's thinking.
Speaker 9 (37:58):
Well, I spoke to a couple full of jurors after
the verdict and they kind of felt that in the end,
Rachel came out ahead, even though it was this like
really stressful situation for her where she had put the
payment for this trip on her work visa card and
just you know, it was a sum of money that
(38:19):
was greater than what she earned.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
As a salary.
Speaker 10 (38:22):
But eventually, you know, she did.
Speaker 9 (38:27):
She did end up with I think her book advance
was three hundred thousand dollars. I don't know what she
got paid from HBO. So I think that they just
didn't feel that bad for her.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
But why because why do they not feel bad for
Rachel Williams.
Speaker 9 (38:41):
Because she was also using Anna Soroken. You could say
like she, you know, it's sort of weird, like she's
going out with Anna all the time, and Anna it's
always paying for absolutely everything. You know, I personally wouldn't
feel that comfortable if I was going out with somebody,
even if they were much wealthier than me, with them
(39:01):
flitting the bill every time. So I think that was
kind of their reasoning.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Take a listen to what happens immediately when she walks
out from behind bars ar cut fourteen, Inside edition.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
If you walked out of prison a free woman, high
on a it was the first thing you did that.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Brought me my phone, So I got on social media.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
She came out of prison and immediately sat down to
do this interview with us, and immediately went on social
media and immediately started to resume kind of a glamorous life.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
So the first thing she does is on social media.
What does that tell you, doctor Rockwell, the same thing.
Speaker 14 (39:40):
And tell of you, doctor Gray, that she didn't feel
all bad about one thing through this entire event, that
there's a lack of conscience, and that she was loving
the spotlight and she couldn't wait to get back into it.
As I say, it's an addiction. It makes the hormones
flash in your mind, you have do fan. Your brain
(40:01):
comes alive with your own image, and you love it,
you salivate over it. And that's what happened to Panna Sorkin.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Jim Ellis certified Fraught Examiner, are now with his own
firm JKE Texas dot Com. Jim shopaholics or people that
get a thrill out of buying things. I think Anna
Sorokan aka n Anna Delvey got a thrill of some
sort of this fake life she was leading. Do you
(40:32):
think someone like her can turn over a new leaf
or is this just who she is?
Speaker 10 (40:39):
Well, that's a good question. I mean, I always hope
I did.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Say what you hope. Jim Ellis, you investigated so many
con guys, what do you think they don't stop?
Speaker 10 (40:51):
I mean, as you pointed out, she immediately got back
on social media. And I agree with doctor Rockwell that
it was for the endorphin rush of getting that hit,
of getting that fame and putting out that projection. But
I think it's also a certain aspect that is rebuilding
her stature so that she can now see where she
(41:16):
can get her next meal ticket from. But who in
the right mind would want to work with somebody that
just got out of prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands
of dollars from the people she was closest to.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Wow, Okay, this woman apparently has no shame. Instead of
trying to pay back her victims, she's whining about her
bedazzled ankle monitor. Well, with this woman, it never ends.
(41:53):
Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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