August 16, 2025 • 37 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 being deported, but again Sorokin falls 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 headline now over bunnies. She recently posed with three leashed bunnies in a Tribeca neighborhood. Then they were discovered in Brooklyn's Prospect Park days later, prompting fierce online backlash. Sorokin says she has received hundreds of death threats, even though she denies any responsibility.
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: Crime online 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 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why won't she go away?
Why does she keep resurfacing again? Anna Delvy aka Anna Sorkin,
the con artist, has reared her ugly head. Yes, she's
(00:22):
at it again. The fake heiress caught in a new scandal,
this time involving bunnies. You know, the hippie hoppy type
of a little creature. Bunnies. Yes, bunnies. The con artists
who ripped her friends and others off to the tune
of around one hundred thousand dollars plus. Anna Delvy now
(00:46):
accused of cruelly dumping baby bunnies in a public park
after she used them in a photo shoot, left them
out there to die. It never ends with this woman.
I mean, I see Grace. This is Crime Stories, and
I want to thank you for being with us. Yes,
(01:08):
the fake heiress con artist caught in a brand new scandal,
this time about bunnies. The Russian whose real name is
Anna Sorkin, known for posing as a German heiress to
climb the social ladder in Manhattan and defrauding a series
(01:28):
of banks, hotels, and individuals. I mentioned over one hundred
thousand dollars, and that was her friends. But she ripped
off other people to the tune of about two hundred
and seventy five thousand dollars. That's over a quarter of
a million dollars. And now she uses little bunnies in
a photoshoot and then they're found abandoned in a public
(01:50):
park in Brooklyn. Now, Delvy squear she has no idea
how the bunnies were found for her photoshoot, and some
teen kit assistant has amazingly taken responsibility. According to a
Reddit user, a rabbit named Parker was rescued from a
(02:11):
park and placed in foster care. Three days later, another
rabbit is found in Prospect Park. That bunny saved as well.
Neighbors and others were alerted and everyone noticed. Both of
the rabbits look identical to the ones penned by Anna
(02:34):
Delviy on Instagram. The images show her posing on York
streets with two bunnies on leeds Well. The internet went
wild to that. Delvy goes online and insists the bunnies
were borrowed for the shute and they are safe at
(02:54):
home with their owners. She put that on insta. Initially,
the assistant did the bunnies were found in the park abandoned,
but later released a statement claiming that he was responsible.
Under other controversy surrounding Anna Delvi, the fake Heiress. Do
(03:14):
you remember what happened? Because I sure do. Let's take
a little flashback.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
With an extravagant lifestyle and a seemingly endless supply of money,
delv 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.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Her father was a Russian billionaire, a Russian.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Diplomat, an oil tycoon, 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.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And quote upset fake German era 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
(04:19):
more upset about 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 of a quarter of a
million dollars. Joining me in all star lineup Jeff Cortize,
(04:42):
former FBI special agent. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of
Red Flags, Doctor William in July psychologist in John Limley
crimeonline dot Com investigative reporter John Limley help me out.
This girl shows up. Her skin is so payd.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She looks like a ghost, and she's got this long
brown hair parted usually slightly on the side, big glasses,
and the hair hangs down like curtains.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Over her face. 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? Give me your money? Oops,
I forgot my credit card. What happened? Let's just start
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
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 (05:46):
I understand something, John Linley, 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
(06:06):
with a sixty five thousand dollars bill. Wait are you
calling that a dream? How it? Wait? How dare you person?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Dream? Is another person's night?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You find yourself with cliches? Don't the American dream my
rear end, Jeff Cortiese, I call it something a lot
different than the American dream?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Absolutely, I mean this was a at least on the
front end, a well executed fraud. Over the long term,
it didn't It didn't have the legs to remain sustainable
a long term.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
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
(07:01):
Voice of Reason? He just called this the American Dream? What?
Speaker 7 (07:07):
Well?
Speaker 8 (07:07):
I think John Linley, 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, nobody
even took the time to say, show me the money,
(07:29):
show me the fun, show me the corroboration behind your
wild stories.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Because caught up in the moment in an Instagram.
Speaker 8 (07:36):
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 like
this that are able to so easily infiltrate our social
networking to doctor Williams you Lye, psychologist, author of a
dark and they did a.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Quit her off, which I was shocked about because this
girl actually took the stand Graham larceny for a luedgedly
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 on a luxurious trip to Morocco, you stay in
(08:16):
a five star hotel. They went to Spa treatments that
were costing like three hundred dollars a treatment, whatever. That
treatment may be 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 5 (08:37):
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
(08:59):
how can this sort of thing happen. We're all baffled
when we see this, but it's age old. It's a
tale as old as time. 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 want to
(09:22):
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 by.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Are you piling on everybody on the panel except Cortiese
Thank goodness, as 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 Gray. Fake heiress Anna delviy hits the headlines again,
(10:03):
this time about abandoned bunnies of all things. Okay, Anna
delviy I Guess is one of her names. Annasorkin is
another name. She is Russian from a middle class family
who presented herself in New York as a German heiress,
socialite and cond people at a nearly three hundred thousand dollars,
(10:26):
including fantastic hotels, amazing five star trips, fancy restaurants, clothes,
you name it again. She is linked with scandal, go
away work like the rest of us. For Pete's sake,
do you remember the trial? I remember the whole thing
(10:46):
was delayed because she refused to come out unless she
had in designer clothes. Oh my stars. But let's take
a walk down memory lane. Her parents' hard working middle
class people that she borrowed a ton of money borrowed,
I eastole a ton of money from them as well. Hey,
but she didn't just create a different identity her parents.
(11:10):
I think the dad drives a truck, and I know
what 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 food on the table. But she not
only assumed different an identity for herself, but she also
(11:30):
created a whole team of imaginary assistants, an assistant, an accountant,
a manager Limley. Is this true of her imaginary assistance?
Speaker 9 (11:41):
Well?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
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 members only arts club
(12:03):
on Park Avenue South and was even working to get
the financing for it, and was not too far awaiting.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
This John Lanley. She lied to a bank using phony records.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
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 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
(12:34):
to investigate her alleged assets.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Wow that's Jesse Palmer over at Daily Mail TV. Wow Okay,
So friends and acquaintances. Say Sorokan 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. Then those
(13:01):
who knew her saw her at a party in Berlin.
She told everybody she had just flown in on a
private jet. How 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 really
(13:22):
amazed me. You know, I don't know if you do
this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, 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 in in
(13:44):
inmate jumpsuit, prison blues or orange or stripes, whatever the
case may be. But I would always keep 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
(14:05):
more concerned about what she wore to court every day.
She had She actually had a personal dresser dialist dressing
her for court. Wendy.
Speaker 8 (14:15):
Yeah, you know, Nancy, what you're describing really is something
hopefully the judge will take.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Into considering it sentencing.
Speaker 8 (14:21):
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 1 (14:31):
The rest of us work for a living. Her family
works for a living.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
There is so much more to life than clothes and
appearances an image.
Speaker 10 (14:39):
You know.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
One of the things that distinguishes this case is the
fact that this 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 1 (14:54):
So well, listen to our friends and inside Edition. This
is Diane mcinernie.
Speaker 8 (14:58):
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 1 (15:07):
She was so concerned about how she looked in court
she actually hired a stylist.
Speaker 11 (15:11):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event.
Annasorkin 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.
Speaker 7 (15:32):
Black dress definitely a no no. 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
be overtly sexy. The more sexy she appears to be,
it hurts her.
Speaker 11 (15:48):
Sore Kin 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 Sorrikin's lawyer, Todd Spodek, says
accounts of his client delaying the trial because of fashion
are being blown out of proportion.
Speaker 12 (16:09):
It's not that she didn't want to come out only
because of the clothes. She's going through a major criminal
trial that's publicized every day. It's emotional, and it's her life.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Don't cry too much for Anna Serrokan. 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,
Gucci sandals, high in botes from net to porte at
(16:41):
Last 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
(17:05):
out CRISP one hundred dollar tips to both 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 of
(17:26):
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. Yeah, that's a great question,
you know.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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,
though she would go back to the same bake.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
On occasion for.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Certain certain banking activity. 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 (18:06):
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 records and got I don't know fifty
(18:27):
to one hundred grand from one bank and used 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
(18:49):
way she carried on this big, huge imaginary life. She
would splash out on shopping sprees at boutiques, very expensive
person training sessions and beautician appointments, and she would always
bring along a friend and pay for them and they
would be all impressed. The social elite, as they call themselves,
(19:12):
would go to lavish 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
(19:33):
know when children have an imaginary friend, there's all sorts
of psychological reasons for that, maybe just security.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
But an adult, 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
(20:00):
into this, then 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
that it happens every day, and this is a person
(20:21):
who 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 the maybe a pathological
type of charm. Some people can do that. And also
you can remember, other people are buying into this because
the banks aren't changing credentials properly.
Speaker 13 (20:43):
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 and an oil baron
or involved in the solar panel business, none of which
are the case. People who knew her said she often
others to use their credit cards to cover cab and
plane fairs and then failing to repay them.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Our friend Michael Sisak at Time Magazine online, Yeah, there
was 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
(21:26):
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
(21:49):
cards were all declined, but Sorokin paid her back triple
the amount the following day in cash. So learned that
she would go to unique treatments like infrared saunas in
the East Village, go out to dinner after celebrity training
(22:13):
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 (22:25):
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
(22:48):
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 examp 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
(23:09):
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
(23:31):
of her wealth. Someone actually thought to ask about that.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
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, Wendy,
how do you do that?
Speaker 5 (23:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
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 sophistication. And you know, the
answer to how you do that is the same way
we've commit we see people committing other crimes. Is sometimes
people are so trusting because image matters. You know, this
(24:10):
is something I talk about in my book.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We tend to attribute.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
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 them acquire the kind
of wealth and as you point out, tangible benefits that
this young lady did.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Don Lenley tell me about the lux treatment she got
in Morocco where she ended up stiffing her friend with
the bail.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
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
(24:59):
go out for a round of drinks and oops, she
forgot her credit cards. So she would ask, you know,
very quietly, if the friend 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,
(25:24):
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 1 (25:36):
A sixty two thousand dollars vacation that is more 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. For instance, they took private tennis lessons.
(25:58):
They ate breakfast poolside. A butler would deliver them fresh
watermelons and bottles of rose. They roamed the gardens, relaxed,
swam in the villa's private pool, took a tour of
the wine cellar eight dinner with live Moroccan music, before
(26:23):
capping off their knights 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 dollars vacation built on crime.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
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 have it. You talk about the value of
hard work the way we were all raised. It sounds
(27:04):
like those she surrounded herself were really taken with the
fact that someone they believed was as rich and famous
as she was would be interested in them.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That is a basic human need.
Speaker 8 (27:14):
Ironically, that was being satisfied through criming through, as you
pointed out earlier, having this imaginary friend that's larger than.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Like crime stories with Nancy Grace, Anna delviy Aka Anahsauric
and the con artists back in the news, this time
to the forefront over abandoned bunnies used in a photo
(27:44):
shoot and then abandoned in public parks. Well, eagle eyed
Reddit users notice they look very similar to the ones
in Anna Delvi's photo shoot, and bam, it all came
crashing down. Now a teen assistant says it's all his
fault that he lied, and he takes responsibility. Okay, whatever
(28:06):
you say. I'm still hung up on the three hundred
thousand dollars she scamned. Remember that. 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 before you begin jury's selection, so everybody knows who's
(28:28):
charged with what and what all the accounts are. And
I would love it to say state versus Jeff Cortize
aka Charlie Tuna aka the Hammer aka Blah blah blah,
and so forth and so on. I would love reading
out ten or twelve aliases. And by the time you've
(28:49):
done reading that, the jury just looks at the person
and goes, You're so, you're guilty, You're guilty. Why are
you Why do you have twelve aliases, and this girl,
I'm telling it, not only had aliases, but she had
fake assistant. She lied about her mom and dad who
they really are. The reality is that her father was
(29:12):
a truck driver and he went on to work at
or start a heating and air conditioned business. The friends
in school called her Barbie and her favorite movie was
Mean Girls. And I don't think that's any of that
(29:33):
is good. Okay, that means nothing good. Jeff Cartize, No,
I agree one hundred percent. You hit it on the head.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
You know, the minute individuals start layering themselves with aliases
and aka's, you know, they're putting up walls and barriers
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 cite
(30:00):
and money from them.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You know, from from top to bottom.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
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 have done many of the techniques that she
did in order to manipulate my audience.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, another aspect to this, John Lemley, is I remember
one day when John David came running home and went,
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
(30:43):
would bring home, you know, like a T shirt or
a moodcu or what whatever they had. And I thought
briefly of creating a different persona to try to impress
John David'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 fall
(31:04):
where they may. John Lumley, I mean that would hurt
me if I found out the twins were lying about
their mom and dad, that what we are isn't good
enough to fit in to their self image they're projecting,
that would really hurt my feelers.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
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
(31:47):
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 1 (32:05):
With me, Wait a minute, I thought she was supposed
to be a Russian heiress.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
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 13 (32:20):
M h.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I want you to take a listen to what the
defense claims in closing arguments.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
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 wrapping up arguments for a
(32:48):
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. Executors say, was
pretending to be a high flying German heiress living a
fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That is an order for law and that.
Speaker 8 (33:17):
Beyond.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Prosecutors say.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
The twenty eight year old, whose real name is Annasorrikan,
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 Sorrikan tried
securing a twenty two million dollar loan to operate a
private club, claims. Her lawyer denies.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I do not.
Speaker 12 (33:41):
Believe she had the intent to ever commit a crime.
Whether she oweys people money, that's a fact of life.
That's that's the reality of doing business in New York.
Speaker 9 (33:49):
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 (34:05):
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. That's certainly putting perfume
on the pig. Now you know there's a problem. Wendy Patrick,
California prosecutor and author of Red Flags. When the defense
to theft and fraud is fake it till you make it, okay,
(34:30):
I would not say that that's a valid defense and
a fraud case, you're admitting you're faking it.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
It's probably not a good theme for the defense one.
I'm sure they're rethinking.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Right about now. You don't want to.
Speaker 8 (34:43):
That's kind of playing right into the prosecutor's case. Now
what they probably were trying to do, Interestingly, and 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 1 (35:01):
Who can't relate to that.
Speaker 8 (35:03):
There's a little bit of Anna and all of.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Us, you know, some of the themes we've well wait, wait, wait, wait, 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 little
(35:28):
bit of Anna Sorokan 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. Wendy, right, that's what I'm saying that.
Speaker 8 (35:44):
Well, that's baby 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 I'm in again and thankfully it is not successful.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
The courtroom drama played out late into the evening. At
one point the jury appeared deadlocked, the defense asking for
a mistrial, but then the verdict jurors agreeing with the
prosecution that Anasauricin built her fairytale life on a foundation
of theft and lives overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite Anasauricin, the so called Soho Grifter, guilty on
(36:27):
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.
Speaker 12 (36:41):
The jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed
our logic and acquitted her for the top charges. I'm
sad and that she was convicted of some of the
other charges.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
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. While she was turned down, she did
(37:10):
convince one bank to loan her one hundred thousand dollars,
which she never paid back, or lawyer saying she meant
to but had gotten in over her head and was
just buying time.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
To bunnies abandoned in a public park trace back to
Anna Delvey. Surprise, surprise, surprise, She swears she had nothing
to do with it. Yet again another scandal. I would
put money on it if I were a betting person,
which I am not. That we have not heard the
last from Anna Delvy aka con artist Anna Sorkin. Nancy
(37:44):
Gray is signing off for now.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Good night friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why won't she go away?
Why does she keep resurfacing again? Anna Delvy aka Anna Sorkin,
the con artist, has reared her ugly head. Yes, she's
(00:22):
at it again. The fake heiress caught in a new scandal,
this time involving bunnies. You know, the hippie hoppy type
of a little creature. Bunnies. Yes, bunnies. The con artists
who ripped her friends and others off to the tune
of around one hundred thousand dollars plus. Anna Delvy now
(00:46):
accused of cruelly dumping baby bunnies in a public park
after she used them in a photo shoot, left them
out there to die. It never ends with this woman.
I mean, I see Grace. This is Crime Stories, and
I want to thank you for being with us. Yes,
(01:08):
the fake heiress con artist caught in a brand new scandal,
this time about bunnies. The Russian whose real name is
Anna Sorkin, known for posing as a German heiress to
climb the social ladder in Manhattan and defrauding a series
(01:28):
of banks, hotels, and individuals. I mentioned over one hundred
thousand dollars, and that was her friends. But she ripped
off other people to the tune of about two hundred
and seventy five thousand dollars. That's over a quarter of
a million dollars. And now she uses little bunnies in
a photoshoot and then they're found abandoned in a public
(01:50):
park in Brooklyn. Now, Delvy squear she has no idea
how the bunnies were found for her photoshoot, and some
teen kit assistant has amazingly taken responsibility. According to a
Reddit user, a rabbit named Parker was rescued from a
(02:11):
park and placed in foster care. Three days later, another
rabbit is found in Prospect Park. That bunny saved as well.
Neighbors and others were alerted and everyone noticed. Both of
the rabbits look identical to the ones penned by Anna
(02:34):
Delviy on Instagram. The images show her posing on York
streets with two bunnies on leeds Well. The internet went
wild to that. Delvy goes online and insists the bunnies
were borrowed for the shute and they are safe at
(02:54):
home with their owners. She put that on insta. Initially,
the assistant did the bunnies were found in the park abandoned,
but later released a statement claiming that he was responsible.
Under other controversy surrounding Anna Delvi, the fake Heiress. Do
(03:14):
you remember what happened? Because I sure do. Let's take
a little flashback.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
With an extravagant lifestyle and a seemingly endless supply of money,
delv 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.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Her father was a Russian billionaire, a Russian.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Diplomat, an oil tycoon, 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.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And quote upset fake German era 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
(04:19):
more upset about 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 of a quarter of a
million dollars. Joining me in all star lineup Jeff Cortize,
(04:42):
former FBI special agent. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of
Red Flags, Doctor William in July psychologist in John Limley
crimeonline dot Com investigative reporter John Limley help me out.
This girl shows up. Her skin is so payd.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
She looks like a ghost, and she's got this long
brown hair parted usually slightly on the side, big glasses,
and the hair hangs down like curtains.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Over her face. 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? Give me your money? Oops,
I forgot my credit card. What happened? Let's just start
at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
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 (05:46):
I understand something, John Linley, 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
(06:06):
with a sixty five thousand dollars bill. Wait are you
calling that a dream? How it? Wait? How dare you person?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Dream? Is another person's night?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You find yourself with cliches? Don't the American dream my
rear end, Jeff Cortiese, I call it something a lot
different than the American dream?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Absolutely, I mean this was a at least on the
front end, a well executed fraud. Over the long term,
it didn't It didn't have the legs to remain sustainable
a long term.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
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
(07:01):
Voice of Reason? He just called this the American Dream? What?
Speaker 7 (07:07):
Well?
Speaker 8 (07:07):
I think John Linley, 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, nobody
even took the time to say, show me the money,
(07:29):
show me the fun, show me the corroboration behind your
wild stories.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Because caught up in the moment in an Instagram.
Speaker 8 (07:36):
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 like
this that are able to so easily infiltrate our social
networking to doctor Williams you Lye, psychologist, author of a
dark and they did a.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Quit her off, which I was shocked about because this
girl actually took the stand Graham larceny for a luedgedly
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 on a luxurious trip to Morocco, you stay in
(08:16):
a five star hotel. They went to Spa treatments that
were costing like three hundred dollars a treatment, whatever. That
treatment may be 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 5 (08:37):
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
(08:59):
how can this sort of thing happen. We're all baffled
when we see this, but it's age old. It's a
tale as old as time. 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 want to
(09:22):
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 by.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Are you piling on everybody on the panel except Cortiese
Thank goodness, as 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 Gray. Fake heiress Anna delviy hits the headlines again,
(10:03):
this time about abandoned bunnies of all things. Okay, Anna
delviy I Guess is one of her names. Annasorkin is
another name. She is Russian from a middle class family
who presented herself in New York as a German heiress,
socialite and cond people at a nearly three hundred thousand dollars,
(10:26):
including fantastic hotels, amazing five star trips, fancy restaurants, clothes,
you name it again. She is linked with scandal, go
away work like the rest of us. For Pete's sake,
do you remember the trial? I remember the whole thing
(10:46):
was delayed because she refused to come out unless she
had in designer clothes. Oh my stars. But let's take
a walk down memory lane. Her parents' hard working middle
class people that she borrowed a ton of money borrowed,
I eastole a ton of money from them as well. Hey,
but she didn't just create a different identity her parents.
(11:10):
I think the dad drives a truck, and I know
what 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 food on the table. But she not
only assumed different an identity for herself, but she also
(11:30):
created a whole team of imaginary assistants, an assistant, an accountant,
a manager Limley. Is this true of her imaginary assistance?
Speaker 9 (11:41):
Well?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
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 members only arts club
(12:03):
on Park Avenue South and was even working to get
the financing for it, and was not too far awaiting.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
This John Lanley. She lied to a bank using phony records.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
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 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
(12:34):
to investigate her alleged assets.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Wow that's Jesse Palmer over at Daily Mail TV. Wow Okay,
So friends and acquaintances. Say Sorokan 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. Then those
(13:01):
who knew her saw her at a party in Berlin.
She told everybody she had just flown in on a
private jet. How 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 really
(13:22):
amazed me. You know, I don't know if you do
this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, 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 in in
(13:44):
inmate jumpsuit, prison blues or orange or stripes, whatever the
case may be. But I would always keep 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
(14:05):
more concerned about what she wore to court every day.
She had She actually had a personal dresser dialist dressing
her for court. Wendy.
Speaker 8 (14:15):
Yeah, you know, Nancy, what you're describing really is something
hopefully the judge will take.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Into considering it sentencing.
Speaker 8 (14:21):
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 1 (14:31):
The rest of us work for a living. Her family
works for a living.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
There is so much more to life than clothes and
appearances an image.
Speaker 10 (14:39):
You know.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
One of the things that distinguishes this case is the
fact that this 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 1 (14:54):
So well, listen to our friends and inside Edition. This
is Diane mcinernie.
Speaker 8 (14:58):
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 1 (15:07):
She was so concerned about how she looked in court
she actually hired a stylist.
Speaker 11 (15:11):
Is she in a courtroom or at a red carpet event.
Annasorkin 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.
Speaker 7 (15:32):
Black dress definitely a no no. 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
be overtly sexy. The more sexy she appears to be,
it hurts her.
Speaker 11 (15:48):
Sore Kin 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 Sorrikin's lawyer, Todd Spodek, says
accounts of his client delaying the trial because of fashion
are being blown out of proportion.
Speaker 12 (16:09):
It's not that she didn't want to come out only
because of the clothes. She's going through a major criminal
trial that's publicized every day. It's emotional, and it's her life.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Don't cry too much for Anna Serrokan. 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,
Gucci sandals, high in botes from net to porte at
(16:41):
Last 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
(17:05):
out CRISP one hundred dollar tips to both 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 of
(17:26):
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. Yeah, that's a great question,
you know.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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,
though she would go back to the same bake.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
On occasion for.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Certain certain banking activity. 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 (18:06):
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 records and got I don't know fifty
(18:27):
to one hundred grand from one bank and used 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
(18:49):
way she carried on this big, huge imaginary life. She
would splash out on shopping sprees at boutiques, very expensive
person training sessions and beautician appointments, and she would always
bring along a friend and pay for them and they
would be all impressed. The social elite, as they call themselves,
(19:12):
would go to lavish 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
(19:33):
know when children have an imaginary friend, there's all sorts
of psychological reasons for that, maybe just security.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
But an adult, 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
(20:00):
into this, then 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
that it happens every day, and this is a person
(20:21):
who 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 the maybe a pathological
type of charm. Some people can do that. And also
you can remember, other people are buying into this because
the banks aren't changing credentials properly.
Speaker 13 (20:43):
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 and an oil baron
or involved in the solar panel business, none of which
are the case. People who knew her said she often
others to use their credit cards to cover cab and
plane fairs and then failing to repay them.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Our friend Michael Sisak at Time Magazine online, Yeah, there
was 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
(21:26):
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
(21:49):
cards were all declined, but Sorokin paid her back triple
the amount the following day in cash. So learned that
she would go to unique treatments like infrared saunas in
the East Village, go out to dinner after celebrity training
(22:13):
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 (22:25):
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
(22:48):
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 examp 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
(23:09):
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
(23:31):
of her wealth. Someone actually thought to ask about that.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
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, Wendy,
how do you do that?
Speaker 5 (23:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
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 sophistication. And you know, the
answer to how you do that is the same way
we've commit we see people committing other crimes. Is sometimes
people are so trusting because image matters. You know, this
(24:10):
is something I talk about in my book.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We tend to attribute.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
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 them acquire the kind
of wealth and as you point out, tangible benefits that
this young lady did.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Don Lenley tell me about the lux treatment she got
in Morocco where she ended up stiffing her friend with
the bail.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
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
(24:59):
go out for a round of drinks and oops, she
forgot her credit cards. So she would ask, you know,
very quietly, if the friend 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,
(25:24):
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 1 (25:36):
A sixty two thousand dollars vacation that is more 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. For instance, they took private tennis lessons.
(25:58):
They ate breakfast poolside. A butler would deliver them fresh
watermelons and bottles of rose. They roamed the gardens, relaxed,
swam in the villa's private pool, took a tour of
the wine cellar eight dinner with live Moroccan music, before
(26:23):
capping off their knights 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 dollars vacation built on crime.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
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 have it. You talk about the value of
hard work the way we were all raised. It sounds
(27:04):
like those she surrounded herself were really taken with the
fact that someone they believed was as rich and famous
as she was would be interested in them.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That is a basic human need.
Speaker 8 (27:14):
Ironically, that was being satisfied through criming through, as you
pointed out earlier, having this imaginary friend that's larger than.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Like crime stories with Nancy Grace, Anna delviy Aka Anahsauric
and the con artists back in the news, this time
to the forefront over abandoned bunnies used in a photo
(27:44):
shoot and then abandoned in public parks. Well, eagle eyed
Reddit users notice they look very similar to the ones
in Anna Delvi's photo shoot, and bam, it all came
crashing down. Now a teen assistant says it's all his
fault that he lied, and he takes responsibility. Okay, whatever
(28:06):
you say. I'm still hung up on the three hundred
thousand dollars she scamned. Remember that. 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 before you begin jury's selection, so everybody knows who's
(28:28):
charged with what and what all the accounts are. And
I would love it to say state versus Jeff Cortize
aka Charlie Tuna aka the Hammer aka Blah blah blah,
and so forth and so on. I would love reading
out ten or twelve aliases. And by the time you've
(28:49):
done reading that, the jury just looks at the person
and goes, You're so, you're guilty, You're guilty. Why are
you Why do you have twelve aliases, and this girl,
I'm telling it, not only had aliases, but she had
fake assistant. She lied about her mom and dad who
they really are. The reality is that her father was
(29:12):
a truck driver and he went on to work at
or start a heating and air conditioned business. The friends
in school called her Barbie and her favorite movie was
Mean Girls. And I don't think that's any of that
(29:33):
is good. Okay, that means nothing good. Jeff Cartize, No,
I agree one hundred percent. You hit it on the head.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
You know, the minute individuals start layering themselves with aliases
and aka's, you know, they're putting up walls and barriers
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 cite
(30:00):
and money from them.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You know, from from top to bottom.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
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 have done many of the techniques that she
did in order to manipulate my audience.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, another aspect to this, John Lemley, is I remember
one day when John David came running home and went,
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
(30:43):
would bring home, you know, like a T shirt or
a moodcu or what whatever they had. And I thought
briefly of creating a different persona to try to impress
John David'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 fall
(31:04):
where they may. John Lumley, I mean that would hurt
me if I found out the twins were lying about
their mom and dad, that what we are isn't good
enough to fit in to their self image they're projecting,
that would really hurt my feelers.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
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
(31:47):
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 1 (32:05):
With me, Wait a minute, I thought she was supposed
to be a Russian heiress.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
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 13 (32:20):
M h.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I want you to take a listen to what the
defense claims in closing arguments.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
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 wrapping up arguments for a
(32:48):
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. Executors say, was
pretending to be a high flying German heiress living a
fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That is an order for law and that.
Speaker 8 (33:17):
Beyond.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Prosecutors say.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
The twenty eight year old, whose real name is Annasorrikan,
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 Sorrikan tried
securing a twenty two million dollar loan to operate a
private club, claims. Her lawyer denies.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I do not.
Speaker 12 (33:41):
Believe she had the intent to ever commit a crime.
Whether she oweys people money, that's a fact of life.
That's that's the reality of doing business in New York.
Speaker 9 (33:49):
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 (34:05):
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. That's certainly putting perfume
on the pig. Now you know there's a problem. Wendy Patrick,
California prosecutor and author of Red Flags. When the defense
to theft and fraud is fake it till you make it, okay,
(34:30):
I would not say that that's a valid defense and
a fraud case, you're admitting you're faking it.
Speaker 8 (34:37):
It's probably not a good theme for the defense one.
I'm sure they're rethinking.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Right about now. You don't want to.
Speaker 8 (34:43):
That's kind of playing right into the prosecutor's case. Now
what they probably were trying to do, Interestingly, and 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 1 (35:01):
Who can't relate to that.
Speaker 8 (35:03):
There's a little bit of Anna and all of.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Us, you know, some of the themes we've well wait, wait, wait, wait, 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 little
(35:28):
bit of Anna Sorokan 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. Wendy, right, that's what I'm saying that.
Speaker 8 (35:44):
Well, that's baby 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 I'm in again and thankfully it is not successful.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
The courtroom drama played out late into the evening. At
one point the jury appeared deadlocked, the defense asking for
a mistrial, but then the verdict jurors agreeing with the
prosecution that Anasauricin built her fairytale life on a foundation
of theft and lives overnight, a New York City jury
finding socialite Anasauricin, the so called Soho Grifter, guilty on
(36:27):
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.
Speaker 12 (36:41):
The jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed
our logic and acquitted her for the top charges. I'm
sad and that she was convicted of some of the
other charges.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
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. While she was turned down, she did
(37:10):
convince one bank to loan her one hundred thousand dollars,
which she never paid back, or lawyer saying she meant
to but had gotten in over her head and was
just buying time.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
To bunnies abandoned in a public park trace back to
Anna Delvey. Surprise, surprise, surprise, She swears she had nothing
to do with it. Yet again another scandal. I would
put money on it if I were a betting person,
which I am not. That we have not heard the
last from Anna Delvy aka con artist Anna Sorkin. Nancy
(37:44):
Gray is signing off for now.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Good night friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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