Anna Sorokin: The Fake New York Socialite Who Scammed $250,000

The world has been caught up in the story of Anna Sorokin, the “fake heiress” of New York, accused of scamming friends, banks, and hotels out of at least $250,000; the ultimate case of “fake it until you make it.”

The story of Anna Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, is an interesting one. The name Delvey started appearing in public media a year ago when Vanity Fair ran a story on how she had convinced a friend to go to Marrakech with her, only to leave her friend footing the bill.

Sorokin told the judge in the case that she wouldn’t testify for the crimes of theft of services and grand larceny in the state court of Michigan. This decision comes after several weeks of testimony against her. She is also accused of attempting to get a $22 million loan by convincing two banks that she had the means to pay them back with fraudulent paperwork.

Her lawyer has defended her by saying that she didn’t intend to commit crimes and that she thoroughly planned on paying back the money. If Sorokin is convicted, she would have to serve the prison sentence in the United States. Even if she is not convicted, she will likely be sent home to Germany as she has overstayed her visa and is technically in the country illegally.

The 28-year-old socialite scammer travelled the world between 2013 and 2017, living in luxurious hotel rooms before finally being arrested in October 2017 and incarcerated at Riker’s Island.

Sorokin would claim to be a wealthy German heiress who had a lot of money – at least $60 million – held in overseas bank accounts. Despite her claims of being a German heiress, it was discovered that she was born in Russia and didn’t have a penny to her name.

Sorokin, the daughter of a Russian truck driver, moved to Germany with her family in 2007. She then moved to London after graduating high school in 2011 for an apprenticeship with a PR firm. She then moved to Paris and began an internship with the European art magazine Purple.

When she moved from Paris to New York, she remade herself and became a socialite. She told people that she was a German heiress who had a massive trust fund to her name. She claimed to be building a “dynamic visual-arts center dedicated to contemporary art.”

She gave an interview with the Cut last year in which she claimed that she was upset at how things had turned out, but said she couldn’t do much about it from her prison cell. She also continues to insist that she is not a fraud, stating she only wished to become a leading figure in the art world. She claims that she never intended to become a socialite. Her aim with the dinners was to be taken seriously, and that she considered them “work dinners”.

What happens to Anna Sorokin now is up to the courts to decide.