October 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin conned her way into Manhattan society.
Posing as Anna Delvey, a German heiress, she swindled banks, hotels, and friends out of more than $200,000. She forged checks to get money from banks and charmed people into paying for extravagant meals and travel.
Sorokin was convicted on a handful of grand larceny and theft of services charges. After serving her time, the 31-year-old was released from prison and is now fighting against deportation, but once again, Sorokin has managed to land on her feet.
First, she landed a deal with Netflix for the rights to her life story, then began selling her artwork, and then Sorokin said her home confinement and social media ban are “more restrictive” than jail.
Sorokin is back in the headlines, saying the weight she gained in prison is "embarrassing." Delvey tells Page Six the food in prison is the worst.
Delvey's ankle monitor radius had been extended now to 75 miles, which allows her roaming room for the long series of beauty treatments she's indulging in, paid for by her income from Dancing With The Stars.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Wendy Patrick: Trial Attorney & Author of “Red Flags”
- Jeff Cortese: Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent
- Dr. William July: Psychologist
- John Lemley: CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
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 (00:01):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grayson. This is
Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Does she never go away? Why can't she just get
a job and be quiet?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm talking about the fake heiress, the con artist that
conned we know of about a quarter million dollars out
of friends and businesses. Anna Delvy now whining. Wait for it,
she's quote embarrassed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Quote about how much weight she gained behind bars.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Shouldn't she be embarrassed for conning people out of a
quarter of a million dollars?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Quote the food is just the worst?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Delvy toll page six, about her stint behind bars. Quote,
I looked really, really bad when I came out of jail.
I think I was at my heaviest and I was
like really self conscious.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's so embarrassing. Is she crazy? She should be embarrassed
about conning.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Friends, ripping them off to the tune of about a
quarter million dollars?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
How did she do it? Let's take a little flashback.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
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
her fame. Her circle of acquaintances was fed various stories
as to how she accumulated her vast wealth. Her father
was a Russian billionaire, a Russian diplomat, an oil tycoon,
(01:41):
a Russian antiques collector, or a solar energy capitalist. While
many parts of Delvy's story were fluid, some things were consistent.
Delvy made no effort to hide her internship at the
Paris magazine Purple, and made it very clear that her
dream was to open a Soho house for art and quote.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Upset fake German heiress and a serrokean guilty of grand
larceny after a life of fake ripping people off to
nearly a quarter of a million dollars that we know of,
who would believe a Russian heiress and fork over thousands
of dollars? And in court she was more upset about
(02:20):
her designer clothing wardrobe than she was about being found guilty.
Now that's unusual. This girl and a Serrocan also known
as Anna Delviy, somehow manages to con so Ho Elite out.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Of a quarter of a million dollars, joining me in
all star lineup.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Jeff Cortize former FBI Special Agent Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags, Doctor William in July psychologist in
John Limley, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter John Limley
help me out. This girl shows up. Her skin is
so pale, she looks.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Like a ghost.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And she's got this long brown hair parted usually slightly
on the side, big glasses, and the hair hangs down
like curtains.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Over her face.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You can barely see the eyes, you know, the hair
is so close down. I can't see her face. That
makes me suspicious. But who would buy into my dad
is a Russian billionaire?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Give me your money. Oops, I forgot my credit card.
What happened? Let's just start at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Well, Nancy, apparently a lot of people were just hungry
to buy into this story. If New York City is
a city of dreams, which we hear it called all
the time, Anna had enough for the entire island. She
had longed to be a member of the upper echelon
of Manhattan system.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I understand something, John Lenlay, Crime Online investigator reporter. Did
you just call her giant fraud? Ripping people off tens
of thousands of dollars, including one woman that took the
stand A working class person who go on an all
expense paid trip with her to Morocco and she gets
stiffed with a sixty five thousand dollars bill.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Wait are you calling that a dream?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Go it?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Wait? How dare you?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Persons? Dream is another person's night.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
To feed yourself with cliches?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Don't the American dream my rear end? Jeff Cortiese, I
call it something a lot different than the American Dream?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
I mean this was a at least on the front end,
a well executed fraud.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Over the long term, it didn't. It didn't have the
legs to remain sustainable a long term.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I mean she managed to pull it off, Wendy Patrick,
for you know what two years? I forgot how long
she managed to pull the wool over everybody's eyes, going
on trips to Morocco, staying at I think it's eleven
Howard some ritzy. I don't even know how you find
that hotel in New York. It's one of those places.
I don't think it's even marked. Only rich people go there.
Wendy Patrick, What is what happened to John Limley? The
(05:01):
Voice of reason. He just called this the American dream.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
What well, I think, John Limley, what he was talking
about is there are there are some misguided, vulnerable people
that really are subjected to social predators like Anna, and
you know, some people just are absolutely you guys mentioned
the glamor, the glitz. It's like they want to believe
and this fake it till you make it lifestyle. You know,
(05:26):
nobody even took the time to say, show me the money,
show me the fun, show me the corroboration behind your
wild stories, because caught up in the moment in an
Instagram savvy society, people want to be in the company
of people like Anna, and sadly, as a prosecutor, I
am just we are just absolutely just terrified of people
(05:46):
like this that are able to so easily infiltrate our social.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Networking to doctor Williams, you a lie of psychologist, author
of a dark and they did a quit her off,
which I was shocked about because this girl actually took
the stand Graham larceny for alleged stealing sixty two thousand
dollars from a friend that she said, come along, I'll
pay for everything on a trip to Morocco. Okay, I
think they actually punished the friend because when you go
(06:13):
on a luxurious trip to Morocco, you stay in a
five star hotel. They went to Spa treatments that were
costing like three hundred dollars a treatment.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Whatever that treatment may be.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Laying in mud, getting their nails whatever, three hundred I
think the Jerry punished that friend for going along with
the excess doctor July.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Yeah, I mean, at worse, Nancy, what you're looking at
in cases like this, at worst is a psychopathological level
of narcissism. At best, what you're looking at as a
person who has so much greed and desire to please
herself that she doesn't care what the consequences are for
other people. You were asking earlier, and I just want
to address what you were asking earlier about why and
(06:59):
how and this sort of thing happened. We're all baffled
when we see this, but it's age old. It's a
tale as old as time. The Charlottan comes in and
fools everyone. So there's a part of people that are
looking at this who want to believe this because they
want to hang out with the person who has this
kind of social These types of social credentials and they
(07:22):
want to believe that she's an heiress so that they
can be with her. And people are blaming social media.
It's not the fault of social media. Social media is
just a facilitator to the neediness of other people who
want to believe and accept it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
By are you piling on everybody on the panel except Cortese,
Thank goodness, has keeps talking about the Instagram and society.
You know what, Instagram didn't have a dang thing to
do with this. It was all mistaing crime stories with
Nancy Grace Anna Delvey, the fake heiress has the gall
(08:05):
to wine quote. I was eating like cheese, it's and
diet coke from the vending machine. I don't eat meat,
but you probably don't want to eat meat that they're
serving in jail anyway. And then when I came out,
I needed to eat everything that I was missing.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I'm so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Okay, she should be embarrassed, but not because she ate Cheetos.
She should be embarrassed because she is a thief, a
con artist that ripped off everybody, from banks to corporations
to her so called best friends.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
But let's take a walk down memory lane.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Her parents' hard working middle class people that she borrowed
a ton of money borrowed.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I eastole a.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Ton of money from them as well. Hey, but she
didn't just create a different identity her parents. I think
the dad drives a truck, and I know that's like
my dad, as you know, worked on the railroad. My
mom started as a bank teller. My grandfather drove an
ice truck and a school bus, anything to put the
(09:16):
food on the table. But she not only assumed different
an identity for herself, but she also created a whole
team of imaginary assistants, an assistant, an accountant, a manager Limley.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Is this true of her imaginary assistance well?
Speaker 4 (09:33):
And some were not so imaginary. She even had the
concierge at a hotel essentially on her staff. At her
Beck and Call. She was able to convince people of
not only her wealth, but all of her aspirations, her dreams.
She really wanted to build this member's only arts club
(09:54):
on Park Avenue South and was even working to get
the financing for it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And was not reading this, John Lanley. She lied to
a bank using phony records.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Anna went too far when she attempted to take out
a loan for twenty two million dollars to finance a
visual art center she called the Anna Deelvi Foundation. In all,
Anna reportedly scammed a total of two hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars, and his double life began to crumble
as hotels went after her unpaid debts and banks began
(10:25):
to investigate her alleged assets.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Wow, that's Jesse Palmer over at Daily Mail TV.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Okay, So, friends and acquaintances say Sorokans spent years playing
the part of an art obsessed German heiress. Sometimes she'd
be Russian, sometimes she'd be German. She had an accent
to go with it, rubbing shoulders with the fashion elite
at Paris Fashion Week, frequently spotted in London night spots.
(10:52):
Then those who knew her saw her at a party
in Berlin. She told everybody she had just flown in
on a private jet. Did she pull it off? Scamming
nearly three hundred thousand dollars. It was only when these
ritzy hotels in New York went after her to pay
her bills that the whole thing fell apart. But what
(11:13):
really amazed me, You know, I don't know if you
do this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor or author
of red Flags on Amazon. Wendy, under the constitution, you
can't force a defendant into court in handcuffs or leg
irons or waist shackle. You can't force them to come
(11:34):
in in inmate jumpsuit, prison blues.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Or orange or stripes, whatever the case may be. But
I would always keep.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
A jacket and pants and a couple of different sizes
in my office. So when a defendant would show up
on Monday morning trial calendar and say, oh, yeah, I
want to go to trial, but I don't have a suit,
I go, oh, I do have a suit for you.
But she was more concerned about what she wore to
court every day she had She actually had a personal
dresser dialist dressing her for court. Wendy, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Nancy, what you're describing really is something hopefully the judge
will take into considering it fentancing, because it's this entire
mentality of I don't want to say just not getting it.
That would be too kind. It's a complete underappreciation, or
I should say non appreciation for the fact that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
The rest of us work for a living. Her family
works for a living.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
There is so much more to life than clothes and
appearances an image.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
One of the things that distinguishes this case is the
fact that this.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Over emphasis on image, on money, on glamour sounds like
it absolutely overrode every ounce of judgment that she had
and to take that into the courtroom, as you mentioned,
Nancy is probably a little bit beyond the pale.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So listen to our friends and inside edition. This is
Diane mcinernie.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
This one may look like she is dressed for a
fashion show it and her designer does, but the wannabe socialite
is actually on trial for swindling hundreds of thousands of
dollars from unsuspecting people.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
She was so concerned.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
About how she looked in court she actually hired a stylist.
Speaker 9 (13:03):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event.
Anna Sorrikin 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 A Warren stylist Don Karen black.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Dress definitely a no.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
No.
Speaker 10 (13:26):
A hyper sexualize her. It makes her appear to be
like a seductress. The choker kind of shows to me
that she's trying to.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Be overtly sexy.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
The more sexy she appears to be, it hurts her.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
Sorikin 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. This is not
a fashion show, but Soorakin's lawyer, Todd Spodek says accounts
of his client delaying the trial because of fashion are
being blown out of It's not that she.
Speaker 11 (14:01):
Didn't want to come out only because of the clothes.
She's going through a major criminal trial that's publicized every day,
because emotional and it's her life.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Don't cry too much for Anna Sorokan. She was living
a life that many people, not me, but many people
dream of. She made a show of proving she belonged
with the rich and famous. Decked out in signature Selene glasses,
Coucci sandals, high end boties from net to Porte at
(14:33):
least Walker she usually hold up in a four hundred
dollars a night room for months on in at Manhattan's
very very Luxurious eleven Howard Hotel. Concierge at the hotel
said they became friends when she would repeatedly routinely pass
(14:56):
out Crisp one hundred dollar tips to both of them
and Uber drivers. When I hear the words Crisp one
hundred dollars, how many hundred dollar bills do you have, Jackie?
I don't think I have any. So Jeff Cartiese, former
FBI special agent, when I hear the word crisp one
hundred dollar bills, that means you just got them out
(15:17):
of an ATM or from the bank. So how does
she manage to defraud the bank, to get cash, to
tip concierge to fake for her.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah, that's a great question, you know. I think it's
a numbers game. In many respects. There were multiple banks
engaged in her activity. She appears, based on the information,
limited her trips back to the same well those she
would go back to the same bake on occasion for.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Certain banking activity.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
She did share the wealth amongst the banks within New York,
so as not to draw too much attention over an
extended period of time.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, what I understand that she did, and I'm going
to have to get clarity on this, is that she
would provide fake bank records to one bank and then
they she was trying to get a massive loan for
twenty two million, so she they wanted a down payment,
so she faked.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Records and got I don't know, fifty to one.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Hundred grand from one bank and use that money to
get a loan as a down payment on a loan,
a bigger loan at another bank, none of the banks
realizing what the others were doing. Another thing that really
fascinates me, doctor Williams July, and not in a good way.
It's like looking at a tarantula under a glass box. Okay,
that sort of fascination is the way she carried on
(16:42):
this big, huge, imaginary life. She would splash out on
shopping sprees at boutiques, very expensive personal training sessions and
beautician appointments, and she would always bring along a friend
and pay for them and they would be all impressed.
The elite, as they call themselves, would go to lavish
(17:05):
in large dinners for celebs are as CEOs all in
restaurants there in Soho And if you do look at
her online, she's always drinking a big glass of wine
at some beautiful location. How can an adult have that
type of an imaginary life? I mean, I know when
children have an imaginary friend, there's all sorts of psychological
(17:28):
reasons for that, maybe just security, but an adult.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Certainly people can have these types of imaginary lives and
they're going to recruit other people just because of the
chronological age does not make a person have the maturation
that they should have. And then that can be from
a lot of different things, but certainly, as much as
she can get other people to buy into this, then
(17:52):
that's because she's going to continue and she's going to
expand that imaginary life. And people can be very charming,
They can be very off putting. Excuse me, they can
be very charming, and they can be very persuasive, and
they can get other people to buy in. There are
people that can go into banks and they can fake
a story and they can get people to believe it.
It happens every day, and this is a person who
(18:12):
can do that. And the imaginary fast parts of this.
I mean, I haven't examined her, so I can't go
so far to say she's delusional or anything like that.
But clearly she has the ability maybe a pathological type
of chan Some people can do that, and also can
remember other people are buying into this because the banks
(18:33):
aren't changing credentials properly.
Speaker 12 (18:35):
Under the name Anna Delvi, she arrived in New York
with a high priced wardrobe and was known for handing
out one hundred dollars cash tips, reportedly saying at different
points that her father was a diplomat, 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 (18:56):
Our friend Michael Cissak at Time Magazine online, Yeah, there
were one story that came out at trial how she
hired a PR firm to organize her birthday party in Soho.
It emerged she never paid the bill. During her stay
at eleven Howard, she struck up a friend there. In
(19:18):
addition to the concierges to and as for the recommendations
for the very vetty vetty best food in Soho. We
also learned that on one occasion she invited friends to
dinner at Soho s and bro and the friend ended
up paying a whopper massive bill when Soroken's twelve credit
(19:41):
cards were all declined, but Sorokin paid her back triple
the amount the following day in cash. We also learned
that she would go to unique treatments like infrared saunas
in the East Village, go out to dinner after celebrity
(20:04):
training sessions with Casey Duke, which Soroken also paid for
John Limley. How did she get money from one bank
to get a loan from another bank? How did that work?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
It's a very interesting line to follow. How she did this.
She would go to a bank and ask for a
certain line of credit based on a lot of times
just a promise of the fact that she had millions
overseas that she could repay the loan, and she would
(20:39):
go from one bank with that money to another bank
and get an even larger In fact, here's an example,
she talked to an exam to an executive with City
National Bank into giving her a line of credit on
her account for one hundred thousand dollars, promising to repay
(21:00):
it with a wire transfer from a European account. She
used that money in a failed attempt to secure a
twenty five million dollar loan from Fortress Investment Group, and
the one of the managing directors at Fortress has said
that she ran into problems providing details about the origin
(21:22):
of her wealth. Someone actually thought to ask about that.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You know, her lines became more and more spectacular. Wendy Patchett,
California prosecutor. In fact, she even managed to charter a
private plane on one occasion with absolutely zero money.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Wendy, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
The level of sophistication Nancy, as John was explaining and
as we know now looking back, was absolutely stunning. It
was almost as if she was daring authorities to catch
her in this escalating scheme of sophistication. And you know,
the answer to how you do that is the same
way we've commit we see people.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Committing other crimes.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Is sometimes people are so trusting because image matters. You know,
this is something I talk about in my book. We
tend to attribute all these positive qualities to somebody who
comes across as believable, whether they're pretty, or we like
what they say, or we're enamored with their axe and
or their clothes. All the types of things that Anna
used to get ahead can fool other people into letting
(22:18):
them acquire the kind of wealth and as you point out,
tangible benefits that this young lady did.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Don Lemley tell me about the lux treatment she got
in Morocco where she ended up stiffing her friend with
the bail.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Well, when they went to Marrakesh, she went with a
friend and she had offered to pay for everything. Now
her friend actually offered to help pay, but she said, no, no, no,
you work hard for your money, harder for your money
than I do. This is my treat, and they would
(22:51):
go out for a round of drinks and oops, she
forgot her credit cards. So she would ask, you know,
very quietly, if the could you know, just cover this
one check. And that would happen over and over and
over again, and this friend in the end ended up
covering the sixty two thousand dollars cost of the flights, dining, shopping,
(23:15):
and the stay at a hotel where they had a
private villa with a courtyard, a pool and a butler.
All the extravagance that you might say was fit for,
say a Kardashian.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
A sixty two thousand dollars vacation that is more.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Than most people make an entire year. While in Marrakesh,
Morocco Soroken aka delv took part in all the activities
the hotel had to offer.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
For instance, they.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Took private tennis lessons. They ate breakfast pool side, a
butler would deliver them fresh watermelons and bottles of rose.
They run, owned the gardens, relaxed, swam in the villa's private.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Pool, took a tour of the.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Wine cellar, eight dinner with live Moroccan music, before capping
off their knives with cocktails at the Churchill Bar. I mean,
this is a trip that most people only dream of.
And now here's miss thing, having a nearly seventy thousand
(24:28):
dollars vacation built on crime.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Yeah, you know, Nancy, the best things in life are free,
and everybody knows that. So when you look at a
story like this, part of I think the offense that
everyone is taking is to use crime and criminal activity
to build a fake world where people pay the kind
of money that most of us would never do even
if we had it, and you talk about the value
of hard work. The way we were all raised, it
(24:55):
sounds like those she surrounded herself were really taken with
the fact that someone they believe as rich and famous
as she was would be interested in them.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That is a basic human need.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Ironically, that was being satisfied through criming through, as you
pointed out earlier, having this imaginary friend that's larger than life.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Anna Delviy, the fraudster, the con artist, the ripoff star,
now whining that she's embarrassed not because she stole from
her so called best friends, but because she gained weight
behind bars. She says she tried ozimpic, but quote, it
just made me depressed. It made me feel like it
(25:48):
sucked the life out of me. That's probably how your
friends felt after you sucked all the money out of.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Their bank accounts.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Delvy aka Anna Sorkin listed a long series of beauty
treatment she's been having lately, from cupping to laser therapy
to vampire facials. Uh where's she getting all that money?
Did she make that much on Dancing with the Stars?
(26:15):
All I know is that money should be used to
pay back all of her victims. Remember her friends banks
hotels that she ripped off. You know, I don't know
about you, Jeff Cortize, FBI special agent, but I loved
it when I would of course, the prosecutor gets in
front of an entire jury panel and reads the indictment
(26:37):
before you begin jury selection, so everybody knows.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Who's charged with what and what all the counts are.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I would love it to say state versus Jeff
Cortize aka Charlie Tuna aka the Hammer aka blah.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Blah blah, and so forth and so on.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I would love reading out ten or twelve aliases and
by the time you've done reading that that, Jerry just
looks at the person and goes, You're so you're.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're guilty, You're guilty. Why are you? Why do you
have twelve aliases?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And this girl, I'm telling you, not only had aliases,
but she had fake assistance. She lied about her mom
and dad who they really are. The reality is that
her father was a truck driver and he went on
to work at or start a heating and air conditioned business.
(27:36):
The friends in school called her Barbie and her favorite movie.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Was Mean Girls. And I don't think that's any of
that is good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Okay, that means nothing good, Jeff Cartize, No, I agree.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You hit it on the head. You know, the minute
individuals start layering themselves with aliases and aka's, you know,
they're putting up walls and barriers that that any jury
is going to be able to see through. You know,
she really executed a well thought out plan against the banks,
using multiple techniques and methods to siphon money from them.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know, from from.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Top to bottom. She exploited what people want to see
and exploited the type of lifestyle that people want to
have to the extent that you know, if I was
going to run undercover, I would I would have done
many of the techniques that she did in order to
manipulate my audience.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Well, another aspect to this, John Lemley, is I remember
one day when John David came running home in it.
So and So's mom is so cool. She works for
Chick fil A and she gets free T shirts and
she gets this, and she gets that. I think the
lady who's very lovely was in marketing or PR and
(28:56):
would bring home, you know, like a T shirt or
a moocau or what whatever they had, and I thought
briefly of creating a different persona to try to impress
John Davis's friends, who were then four years old. Okay,
but I just decided no, I'm just going to stick
with the truth, you know, and let the chips.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Fall where they may. But John Lumley, I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That would hurt me If I found out the twins
were lying about.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Their mom and dad, that what we are.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Isn't good enough to fit in to their self image
they're projecting, that would really hurt my feelers.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
And that's exactly the way her parents felt about the
whole thing. They actually did help fund her through college
and as she was getting out on her own, but
there was never any sort of trust fund. She moved
to Germany in two thousand and seven, and after she
dropped out of college, she interned in public relations before
(30:00):
were then moving to Paris and became an intern at
Purple Magazine. Once she arrived in New York City, she
just somehow managed to be in all the sort of
right places. And she was this German heiress, according to her,
with a father that you would think.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
With me, Wait a minute, I thought she was supposed
to be a Russian heiress.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well, no, she was from Russia, but she told people
she was a German heiress. What's really funny, though, is
that her German, according to a lot of people, was terrible.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
M I want you to take a listen to what
the defense claims in closing arguments.
Speaker 13 (30:38):
She had to fake it until she could make it.
Those words from the defendant's own attorney, who claimed 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 mapping up arguments for a
(31:01):
case that's drawn international outrage. The style savvy defendant even
turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress. She
called herself Anna Delviy, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors say
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That is an order of law and that beyond, prosecutors say.
Speaker 13 (31:33):
The twenty eight year old, whose real name is Anna Sorrikan,
stole two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars from banks, hotels,
and friends, all part of an elaborate scheme to keep
up her illusion of grandeur. Prosecutors also alleged Sorrikin tried
securing a twenty two million dollar loan to operate a
private club, claims her lawyer denies.
Speaker 11 (31:53):
I do not believe she had the intent to ever
commit a crime. Whether she owes people money, that's a
fact of life. That's that's the reality of doing business.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
In New York.
Speaker 13 (32:02):
Now, facing charges of grand larceny and theft, she could
spend up to fifteen years in prison if convicted. An
official say, even if acquitted, she will be deported to Germany.
Sorkin's attorney says she got in over her head but
was just buying time until she could pay everyone back.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You're hearing our buddy wit Johnson at GMA, at ABC
pay everybody back. I saw no signs of paying everybody
back and calling this doing business.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
That's certainly putting perfume on the pig. Now you know
there's a problem.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author of Red Flags. When
the defense to theft and fraud is fake, it till
you make it okay, I would not say that that's
a valid defense and a fraud case, you're admitting you're
faking it.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
It's probably not a good theme for the defense one.
I'm sure they're rethinking right about now. You don't want to.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That's kind of playing right into the prosecutor's case what
they probably were trying to do. Interestingly in trial, and Nancy,
you and I have both seen this is really kind
of painting this vulnerability picture of the defendant to try
to make somebody feel sorry for her that she was
caught up in this false lifestyle, felt she had to
pretend she was somebody she wasn't.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Who can't relate to that.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
There's a little bit of Anna and all of us,
you know some of the themes.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
We' well, wait, I want to isolate what you just said.
The defense argued at trial as if Anna Sorokan aka
Anna Delphy was some type of a renegade and a rebel,
someone who was, you know, making her own path in
the world creatively. B As, don't tell me there's a
(33:41):
little bit of Anna Sorocan in me, because that was
their defense. There's a little bit of Anna and all
of us. Oh uh uh uh no, because she is
a fraud, a thief, and she ripped people off and
they're never going to get repaid.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Wendy, Right, That's what I'm saying that.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Well, that's bably why she was convicted, because these defenses
are just not realistic to jurors, to hardworking jurors, and
just cannot relate to the fact that we are anything
like this picture of Anna. Nonetheless, we have seen this
defense time and again and thankfully it is not successful.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 13 (34:18):
The courtroom drama played out late into the evening. At
one point the jury appeared deadlock, the defense asking for
a mistrial, but then the verdict, jurors agreeing with the
prosecution that anahsauricin built her fairytale life on a foundation
of theft and lives. Overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite anasauricin a so called SOHO grifter guilty on
(34:40):
eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft
of services. Prosecutors arguing the twenty eight year old stole
a quarter of a million dollars from banks, hotels and
friends to fund a lavish lifestyle to jurors.
Speaker 11 (34:55):
Obviously believed our point of view and followed our logic
and acquitted her of the top charges. I'm sad and
that she.
Speaker 12 (35:01):
Was convicted of some of the other charges.
Speaker 13 (35:03):
Prosecutors say the Russian born Sorkin, who called herself Anna Delvi,
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a life of glamour among Manhattan's elite authority. To say,
she even forged financial documents hoping to get a twenty
two million dollar loan to open a private club in
the Big Apple.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
A word of legal advice, I'm solicited. I'll give it
to you for free. Delvi b Quiet silence is golden.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Keep all those special feelings to yourself and they'll be
even more special. We wait as just as unfolds, I
predict we have not heard the last from Anna Delby
aka Anna Suckti
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grayson. This is
Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Does she never go away? Why can't she just get
a job and be quiet?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm talking about the fake heiress, the con artist that
conned we know of about a quarter million dollars out
of friends and businesses. Anna Delvy now whining. Wait for it,
she's quote embarrassed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Quote about how much weight she gained behind bars.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Shouldn't she be embarrassed for conning people out of a
quarter of a million dollars?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Quote the food is just the worst?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Delvy toll page six, about her stint behind bars. Quote,
I looked really, really bad when I came out of jail.
I think I was at my heaviest and I was
like really self conscious.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's so embarrassing. Is she crazy? She should be embarrassed
about conning.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Friends, ripping them off to the tune of about a
quarter million dollars?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
How did she do it? Let's take a little flashback.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
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
her fame. Her circle of acquaintances was fed various stories
as to how she accumulated her vast wealth. Her father
was a Russian billionaire, a Russian diplomat, an oil tycoon,
(01:41):
a Russian antiques collector, or a solar energy capitalist. While
many parts of Delvy's story were fluid, some things were consistent.
Delvy made no effort to hide her internship at the
Paris magazine Purple, and made it very clear that her
dream was to open a Soho house for art and quote.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Upset fake German heiress and a serrokean guilty of grand
larceny after a life of fake ripping people off to
nearly a quarter of a million dollars that we know of,
who would believe a Russian heiress and fork over thousands
of dollars? And in court she was more upset about
(02:20):
her designer clothing wardrobe than she was about being found guilty.
Now that's unusual. This girl and a Serrocan also known
as Anna Delviy, somehow manages to con so Ho Elite out.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Of a quarter of a million dollars, joining me in
all star lineup.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Jeff Cortize former FBI Special Agent Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
author of Red Flags, Doctor William in July psychologist in
John Limley, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter John Limley
help me out. This girl shows up. Her skin is
so pale, she looks.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Like a ghost.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And she's got this long brown hair parted usually slightly
on the side, big glasses, and the hair hangs down
like curtains.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Over her face.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You can barely see the eyes, you know, the hair
is so close down. I can't see her face. That
makes me suspicious. But who would buy into my dad
is a Russian billionaire?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Give me your money. Oops, I forgot my credit card.
What happened? Let's just start at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Well, Nancy, apparently a lot of people were just hungry
to buy into this story. If New York City is
a city of dreams, which we hear it called all
the time, Anna had enough for the entire island. She
had longed to be a member of the upper echelon
of Manhattan system.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I understand something, John Lenlay, Crime Online investigator reporter. Did
you just call her giant fraud? Ripping people off tens
of thousands of dollars, including one woman that took the
stand A working class person who go on an all
expense paid trip with her to Morocco and she gets
stiffed with a sixty five thousand dollars bill.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Wait are you calling that a dream?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Go it?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Wait? How dare you?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Persons? Dream is another person's night.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
To feed yourself with cliches?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Don't the American dream my rear end? Jeff Cortiese, I
call it something a lot different than the American Dream?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
I mean this was a at least on the front end,
a well executed fraud.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Over the long term, it didn't. It didn't have the
legs to remain sustainable a long term.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I mean she managed to pull it off, Wendy Patrick,
for you know what two years? I forgot how long
she managed to pull the wool over everybody's eyes, going
on trips to Morocco, staying at I think it's eleven
Howard some ritzy. I don't even know how you find
that hotel in New York. It's one of those places.
I don't think it's even marked. Only rich people go there.
Wendy Patrick, What is what happened to John Limley? The
(05:01):
Voice of reason. He just called this the American dream.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
What well, I think, John Limley, what he was talking
about is there are there are some misguided, vulnerable people
that really are subjected to social predators like Anna, and
you know, some people just are absolutely you guys mentioned
the glamor, the glitz. It's like they want to believe
and this fake it till you make it lifestyle. You know,
(05:26):
nobody even took the time to say, show me the money,
show me the fun, show me the corroboration behind your
wild stories, because caught up in the moment in an
Instagram savvy society, people want to be in the company
of people like Anna, and sadly, as a prosecutor, I
am just we are just absolutely just terrified of people
(05:46):
like this that are able to so easily infiltrate our social.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Networking to doctor Williams, you a lie of psychologist, author
of a dark and they did a quit her off,
which I was shocked about because this girl actually took
the stand Graham larceny for alleged stealing sixty two thousand
dollars from a friend that she said, come along, I'll
pay for everything on a trip to Morocco. Okay, I
think they actually punished the friend because when you go
(06:13):
on a luxurious trip to Morocco, you stay in a
five star hotel. They went to Spa treatments that were
costing like three hundred dollars a treatment.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Whatever that treatment may be.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Laying in mud, getting their nails whatever, three hundred I
think the Jerry punished that friend for going along with
the excess doctor July.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Yeah, I mean, at worse, Nancy, what you're looking at
in cases like this, at worst is a psychopathological level
of narcissism. At best, what you're looking at as a
person who has so much greed and desire to please
herself that she doesn't care what the consequences are for
other people. You were asking earlier, and I just want
to address what you were asking earlier about why and
(06:59):
how and this sort of thing happened. We're all baffled
when we see this, but it's age old. It's a
tale as old as time. The Charlottan comes in and
fools everyone. So there's a part of people that are
looking at this who want to believe this because they
want to hang out with the person who has this
kind of social These types of social credentials and they
(07:22):
want to believe that she's an heiress so that they
can be with her. And people are blaming social media.
It's not the fault of social media. Social media is
just a facilitator to the neediness of other people who
want to believe and accept it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
By are you piling on everybody on the panel except Cortese,
Thank goodness, has keeps talking about the Instagram and society.
You know what, Instagram didn't have a dang thing to
do with this. It was all mistaing crime stories with
Nancy Grace Anna Delvey, the fake heiress has the gall
(08:05):
to wine quote. I was eating like cheese, it's and
diet coke from the vending machine. I don't eat meat,
but you probably don't want to eat meat that they're
serving in jail anyway. And then when I came out,
I needed to eat everything that I was missing.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I'm so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Okay, she should be embarrassed, but not because she ate Cheetos.
She should be embarrassed because she is a thief, a
con artist that ripped off everybody, from banks to corporations
to her so called best friends.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
But let's take a walk down memory lane.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Her parents' hard working middle class people that she borrowed
a ton of money borrowed.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I eastole a.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Ton of money from them as well. Hey, but she
didn't just create a different identity her parents. I think
the dad drives a truck, and I know that's like
my dad, as you know, worked on the railroad. My
mom started as a bank teller. My grandfather drove an
ice truck and a school bus, anything to put the
(09:16):
food on the table. But she not only assumed different
an identity for herself, but she also created a whole
team of imaginary assistants, an assistant, an accountant, a manager Limley.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Is this true of her imaginary assistance well?
Speaker 4 (09:33):
And some were not so imaginary. She even had the
concierge at a hotel essentially on her staff. At her
Beck and Call. She was able to convince people of
not only her wealth, but all of her aspirations, her dreams.
She really wanted to build this member's only arts club
(09:54):
on Park Avenue South and was even working to get
the financing for it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And was not reading this, John Lanley. She lied to
a bank using phony records.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Anna went too far when she attempted to take out
a loan for twenty two million dollars to finance a
visual art center she called the Anna Deelvi Foundation. In all,
Anna reportedly scammed a total of two hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars, and his double life began to crumble
as hotels went after her unpaid debts and banks began
(10:25):
to investigate her alleged assets.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Wow, that's Jesse Palmer over at Daily Mail TV.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Okay, So, friends and acquaintances say Sorokans spent years playing
the part of an art obsessed German heiress. Sometimes she'd
be Russian, sometimes she'd be German. She had an accent
to go with it, rubbing shoulders with the fashion elite
at Paris Fashion Week, frequently spotted in London night spots.
(10:52):
Then those who knew her saw her at a party
in Berlin. She told everybody she had just flown in
on a private jet. Did she pull it off? Scamming
nearly three hundred thousand dollars. It was only when these
ritzy hotels in New York went after her to pay
her bills that the whole thing fell apart. But what
(11:13):
really amazed me, You know, I don't know if you
do this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor or author
of red Flags on Amazon. Wendy, under the constitution, you
can't force a defendant into court in handcuffs or leg
irons or waist shackle. You can't force them to come
(11:34):
in in inmate jumpsuit, prison blues.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Or orange or stripes, whatever the case may be. But
I would always keep.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
A jacket and pants and a couple of different sizes
in my office. So when a defendant would show up
on Monday morning trial calendar and say, oh, yeah, I
want to go to trial, but I don't have a suit,
I go, oh, I do have a suit for you.
But she was more concerned about what she wore to
court every day she had She actually had a personal
dresser dialist dressing her for court. Wendy, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Nancy, what you're describing really is something hopefully the judge
will take into considering it fentancing, because it's this entire
mentality of I don't want to say just not getting it.
That would be too kind. It's a complete underappreciation, or
I should say non appreciation for the fact that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
The rest of us work for a living. Her family
works for a living.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
There is so much more to life than clothes and
appearances an image.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
One of the things that distinguishes this case is the
fact that this.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Over emphasis on image, on money, on glamour sounds like
it absolutely overrode every ounce of judgment that she had
and to take that into the courtroom, as you mentioned,
Nancy is probably a little bit beyond the pale.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So listen to our friends and inside edition. This is
Diane mcinernie.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
This one may look like she is dressed for a
fashion show it and her designer does, but the wannabe socialite
is actually on trial for swindling hundreds of thousands of
dollars from unsuspecting people.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
She was so concerned.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
About how she looked in court she actually hired a stylist.
Speaker 9 (13:03):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event.
Anna Sorrikin 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 A Warren stylist Don Karen black.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Dress definitely a no.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
No.
Speaker 10 (13:26):
A hyper sexualize her. It makes her appear to be
like a seductress. The choker kind of shows to me
that she's trying to.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Be overtly sexy.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
The more sexy she appears to be, it hurts her.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
Sorikin 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. This is not
a fashion show, but Soorakin's lawyer, Todd Spodek says accounts
of his client delaying the trial because of fashion are
being blown out of It's not that she.
Speaker 11 (14:01):
Didn't want to come out only because of the clothes.
She's going through a major criminal trial that's publicized every day,
because emotional and it's her life.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Don't cry too much for Anna Sorokan. She was living
a life that many people, not me, but many people
dream of. She made a show of proving she belonged
with the rich and famous. Decked out in signature Selene glasses,
Coucci sandals, high end boties from net to Porte at
(14:33):
least Walker she usually hold up in a four hundred
dollars a night room for months on in at Manhattan's
very very Luxurious eleven Howard Hotel. Concierge at the hotel
said they became friends when she would repeatedly routinely pass
(14:56):
out Crisp one hundred dollar tips to both of them
and Uber drivers. When I hear the words Crisp one
hundred dollars, how many hundred dollar bills do you have, Jackie?
I don't think I have any. So Jeff Cartiese, former
FBI special agent, when I hear the word crisp one
hundred dollar bills, that means you just got them out
(15:17):
of an ATM or from the bank. So how does
she manage to defraud the bank, to get cash, to
tip concierge to fake for her.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah, that's a great question, you know. I think it's
a numbers game. In many respects. There were multiple banks
engaged in her activity. She appears, based on the information,
limited her trips back to the same well those she
would go back to the same bake on occasion for.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Certain banking activity.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
She did share the wealth amongst the banks within New York,
so as not to draw too much attention over an
extended period of time.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, what I understand that she did, and I'm going
to have to get clarity on this, is that she
would provide fake bank records to one bank and then
they she was trying to get a massive loan for
twenty two million, so she they wanted a down payment,
so she faked.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Records and got I don't know, fifty to one.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Hundred grand from one bank and use that money to
get a loan as a down payment on a loan,
a bigger loan at another bank, none of the banks
realizing what the others were doing. Another thing that really
fascinates me, doctor Williams July, and not in a good way.
It's like looking at a tarantula under a glass box. Okay,
that sort of fascination is the way she carried on
(16:42):
this big, huge, imaginary life. She would splash out on
shopping sprees at boutiques, very expensive personal training sessions and
beautician appointments, and she would always bring along a friend
and pay for them and they would be all impressed.
The elite, as they call themselves, would go to lavish
(17:05):
in large dinners for celebs are as CEOs all in
restaurants there in Soho And if you do look at
her online, she's always drinking a big glass of wine
at some beautiful location. How can an adult have that
type of an imaginary life? I mean, I know when
children have an imaginary friend, there's all sorts of psychological
(17:28):
reasons for that, maybe just security, but an adult.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Certainly people can have these types of imaginary lives and
they're going to recruit other people just because of the
chronological age does not make a person have the maturation
that they should have. And then that can be from
a lot of different things, but certainly, as much as
she can get other people to buy into this, then
(17:52):
that's because she's going to continue and she's going to
expand that imaginary life. And people can be very charming,
They can be very off putting. Excuse me, they can
be very charming, and they can be very persuasive, and
they can get other people to buy in. There are
people that can go into banks and they can fake
a story and they can get people to believe it.
It happens every day, and this is a person who
(18:12):
can do that. And the imaginary fast parts of this.
I mean, I haven't examined her, so I can't go
so far to say she's delusional or anything like that.
But clearly she has the ability maybe a pathological type
of chan Some people can do that, and also can
remember other people are buying into this because the banks
(18:33):
aren't changing credentials properly.
Speaker 12 (18:35):
Under the name Anna Delvi, she arrived in New York
with a high priced wardrobe and was known for handing
out one hundred dollars cash tips, reportedly saying at different
points that her father was a diplomat, 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 (18:56):
Our friend Michael Cissak at Time Magazine online, Yeah, there
were one story that came out at trial how she
hired a PR firm to organize her birthday party in Soho.
It emerged she never paid the bill. During her stay
at eleven Howard, she struck up a friend there. In
(19:18):
addition to the concierges to and as for the recommendations
for the very vetty vetty best food in Soho. We
also learned that on one occasion she invited friends to
dinner at Soho s and bro and the friend ended
up paying a whopper massive bill when Soroken's twelve credit
(19:41):
cards were all declined, but Sorokin paid her back triple
the amount the following day in cash. We also learned
that she would go to unique treatments like infrared saunas
in the East Village, go out to dinner after celebrity
(20:04):
training sessions with Casey Duke, which Soroken also paid for
John Limley. How did she get money from one bank
to get a loan from another bank? How did that work?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
It's a very interesting line to follow. How she did this.
She would go to a bank and ask for a
certain line of credit based on a lot of times
just a promise of the fact that she had millions
overseas that she could repay the loan, and she would
(20:39):
go from one bank with that money to another bank
and get an even larger In fact, here's an example,
she talked to an exam to an executive with City
National Bank into giving her a line of credit on
her account for one hundred thousand dollars, promising to repay
(21:00):
it with a wire transfer from a European account. She
used that money in a failed attempt to secure a
twenty five million dollar loan from Fortress Investment Group, and
the one of the managing directors at Fortress has said
that she ran into problems providing details about the origin
(21:22):
of her wealth. Someone actually thought to ask about that.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You know, her lines became more and more spectacular. Wendy Patchett,
California prosecutor. In fact, she even managed to charter a
private plane on one occasion with absolutely zero money.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Wendy, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
The level of sophistication Nancy, as John was explaining and
as we know now looking back, was absolutely stunning. It
was almost as if she was daring authorities to catch
her in this escalating scheme of sophistication. And you know,
the answer to how you do that is the same
way we've commit we see people.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Committing other crimes.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Is sometimes people are so trusting because image matters. You know,
this is something I talk about in my book. We
tend to attribute all these positive qualities to somebody who
comes across as believable, whether they're pretty, or we like
what they say, or we're enamored with their axe and
or their clothes. All the types of things that Anna
used to get ahead can fool other people into letting
(22:18):
them acquire the kind of wealth and as you point out,
tangible benefits that this young lady did.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Don Lemley tell me about the lux treatment she got
in Morocco where she ended up stiffing her friend with
the bail.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Well, when they went to Marrakesh, she went with a
friend and she had offered to pay for everything. Now
her friend actually offered to help pay, but she said, no, no, no,
you work hard for your money, harder for your money
than I do. This is my treat, and they would
(22:51):
go out for a round of drinks and oops, she
forgot her credit cards. So she would ask, you know,
very quietly, if the could you know, just cover this
one check. And that would happen over and over and
over again, and this friend in the end ended up
covering the sixty two thousand dollars cost of the flights, dining, shopping,
(23:15):
and the stay at a hotel where they had a
private villa with a courtyard, a pool and a butler.
All the extravagance that you might say was fit for,
say a Kardashian.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
A sixty two thousand dollars vacation that is more.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Than most people make an entire year. While in Marrakesh,
Morocco Soroken aka delv took part in all the activities
the hotel had to offer.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
For instance, they.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Took private tennis lessons. They ate breakfast pool side, a
butler would deliver them fresh watermelons and bottles of rose.
They run, owned the gardens, relaxed, swam in the villa's private.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Pool, took a tour of the.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Wine cellar, eight dinner with live Moroccan music, before capping
off their knives with cocktails at the Churchill Bar. I mean,
this is a trip that most people only dream of.
And now here's miss thing, having a nearly seventy thousand
(24:28):
dollars vacation built on crime.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Yeah, you know, Nancy, the best things in life are free,
and everybody knows that. So when you look at a
story like this, part of I think the offense that
everyone is taking is to use crime and criminal activity
to build a fake world where people pay the kind
of money that most of us would never do even
if we had it, and you talk about the value
of hard work. The way we were all raised, it
(24:55):
sounds like those she surrounded herself were really taken with
the fact that someone they believe as rich and famous
as she was would be interested in them.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That is a basic human need.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Ironically, that was being satisfied through criming through, as you
pointed out earlier, having this imaginary friend that's larger than life.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Anna Delviy, the fraudster, the con artist, the ripoff star,
now whining that she's embarrassed not because she stole from
her so called best friends, but because she gained weight
behind bars. She says she tried ozimpic, but quote, it
just made me depressed. It made me feel like it
(25:48):
sucked the life out of me. That's probably how your
friends felt after you sucked all the money out of.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Their bank accounts.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Delvy aka Anna Sorkin listed a long series of beauty
treatment she's been having lately, from cupping to laser therapy
to vampire facials. Uh where's she getting all that money?
Did she make that much on Dancing with the Stars?
(26:15):
All I know is that money should be used to
pay back all of her victims. Remember her friends banks
hotels that she ripped off. You know, I don't know
about you, Jeff Cortize, FBI special agent, but I loved
it when I would of course, the prosecutor gets in
front of an entire jury panel and reads the indictment
(26:37):
before you begin jury selection, so everybody knows.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Who's charged with what and what all the counts are.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I would love it to say state versus Jeff
Cortize aka Charlie Tuna aka the Hammer aka blah.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Blah blah, and so forth and so on.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I would love reading out ten or twelve aliases and
by the time you've done reading that that, Jerry just
looks at the person and goes, You're so you're.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're guilty, You're guilty. Why are you? Why do you
have twelve aliases?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And this girl, I'm telling you, not only had aliases,
but she had fake assistance. She lied about her mom
and dad who they really are. The reality is that
her father was a truck driver and he went on
to work at or start a heating and air conditioned business.
(27:36):
The friends in school called her Barbie and her favorite movie.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Was Mean Girls. And I don't think that's any of
that is good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Okay, that means nothing good, Jeff Cartize, No, I agree.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You hit it on the head. You know, the minute
individuals start layering themselves with aliases and aka's, you know,
they're putting up walls and barriers that that any jury
is going to be able to see through. You know,
she really executed a well thought out plan against the banks,
using multiple techniques and methods to siphon money from them.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know, from from.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Top to bottom. She exploited what people want to see
and exploited the type of lifestyle that people want to
have to the extent that you know, if I was
going to run undercover, I would I would have done
many of the techniques that she did in order to
manipulate my audience.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Well, another aspect to this, John Lemley, is I remember
one day when John David came running home in it.
So and So's mom is so cool. She works for
Chick fil A and she gets free T shirts and
she gets this, and she gets that. I think the
lady who's very lovely was in marketing or PR and
(28:56):
would bring home, you know, like a T shirt or
a moocau or what whatever they had, and I thought
briefly of creating a different persona to try to impress
John Davis's friends, who were then four years old. Okay,
but I just decided no, I'm just going to stick
with the truth, you know, and let the chips.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Fall where they may. But John Lumley, I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That would hurt me If I found out the twins
were lying about.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Their mom and dad, that what we are.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Isn't good enough to fit in to their self image
they're projecting, that would really hurt my feelers.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
And that's exactly the way her parents felt about the
whole thing. They actually did help fund her through college
and as she was getting out on her own, but
there was never any sort of trust fund. She moved
to Germany in two thousand and seven, and after she
dropped out of college, she interned in public relations before
(30:00):
were then moving to Paris and became an intern at
Purple Magazine. Once she arrived in New York City, she
just somehow managed to be in all the sort of
right places. And she was this German heiress, according to her,
with a father that you would think.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
With me, Wait a minute, I thought she was supposed
to be a Russian heiress.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well, no, she was from Russia, but she told people
she was a German heiress. What's really funny, though, is
that her German, according to a lot of people, was terrible.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
M I want you to take a listen to what
the defense claims in closing arguments.
Speaker 13 (30:38):
She had to fake it until she could make it.
Those words from the defendant's own attorney, who claimed 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 mapping up arguments for a
(31:01):
case that's drawn international outrage. The style savvy defendant even
turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress. She
called herself Anna Delviy, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors say
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That is an order of law and that beyond, prosecutors say.
Speaker 13 (31:33):
The twenty eight year old, whose real name is Anna Sorrikan,
stole two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars from banks, hotels,
and friends, all part of an elaborate scheme to keep
up her illusion of grandeur. Prosecutors also alleged Sorrikin tried
securing a twenty two million dollar loan to operate a
private club, claims her lawyer denies.
Speaker 11 (31:53):
I do not believe she had the intent to ever
commit a crime. Whether she owes people money, that's a
fact of life. That's that's the reality of doing business.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
In New York.
Speaker 13 (32:02):
Now, facing charges of grand larceny and theft, she could
spend up to fifteen years in prison if convicted. An
official say, even if acquitted, she will be deported to Germany.
Sorkin's attorney says she got in over her head but
was just buying time until she could pay everyone back.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
You're hearing our buddy wit Johnson at GMA, at ABC
pay everybody back. I saw no signs of paying everybody
back and calling this doing business.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
That's certainly putting perfume on the pig. Now you know
there's a problem.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author of Red Flags. When
the defense to theft and fraud is fake, it till
you make it okay, I would not say that that's
a valid defense and a fraud case, you're admitting you're
faking it.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
It's probably not a good theme for the defense one.
I'm sure they're rethinking right about now. You don't want to.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That's kind of playing right into the prosecutor's case what
they probably were trying to do. Interestingly in trial, and Nancy,
you and I have both seen this is really kind
of painting this vulnerability picture of the defendant to try
to make somebody feel sorry for her that she was
caught up in this false lifestyle, felt she had to
pretend she was somebody she wasn't.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Who can't relate to that.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
There's a little bit of Anna and all of us,
you know some of the themes.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
We' well, wait, I want to isolate what you just said.
The defense argued at trial as if Anna Sorokan aka
Anna Delphy was some type of a renegade and a rebel,
someone who was, you know, making her own path in
the world creatively. B As, don't tell me there's a
(33:41):
little bit of Anna Sorocan in me, because that was
their defense. There's a little bit of Anna and all
of us. Oh uh uh uh no, because she is
a fraud, a thief, and she ripped people off and
they're never going to get repaid.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Wendy, Right, That's what I'm saying that.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Well, that's bably why she was convicted, because these defenses
are just not realistic to jurors, to hardworking jurors, and
just cannot relate to the fact that we are anything
like this picture of Anna. Nonetheless, we have seen this
defense time and again and thankfully it is not successful.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 13 (34:18):
The courtroom drama played out late into the evening. At
one point the jury appeared deadlock, the defense asking for
a mistrial, but then the verdict, jurors agreeing with the
prosecution that anahsauricin built her fairytale life on a foundation
of theft and lives. Overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite anasauricin a so called SOHO grifter guilty on
(34:40):
eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft
of services. Prosecutors arguing the twenty eight year old stole
a quarter of a million dollars from banks, hotels and
friends to fund a lavish lifestyle to jurors.
Speaker 11 (34:55):
Obviously believed our point of view and followed our logic
and acquitted her of the top charges. I'm sad and
that she.
Speaker 12 (35:01):
Was convicted of some of the other charges.
Speaker 13 (35:03):
Prosecutors say the Russian born Sorkin, who called herself Anna Delvi,
was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
a life of glamour among Manhattan's elite authority. To say,
she even forged financial documents hoping to get a twenty
two million dollar loan to open a private club in
the Big Apple.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
A word of legal advice, I'm solicited. I'll give it
to you for free. Delvi b Quiet silence is golden.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Keep all those special feelings to yourself and they'll be
even more special. We wait as just as unfolds, I
predict we have not heard the last from Anna Delby
aka Anna Suckti
Host
Nancy Grace
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