‘Prison is so exhausting, you wouldn’t even know’: Fake heiress Anna Delvey who duped banks, friends and hotels out of $275,000 returns to Instagram after her early release with a snap of her wearing sunglasses in bed
- Anna Sorokin, also known as ‘Fake Heiress’ Anna Delvey, is a free woman
- She shared an Instagram snap after being released early from prison yesterday
- The ex-convict also set up a Twitter account and was praised by fans
- Sorokin pretended she was Anna Delvey, a German heiress worth billions
- She convinced banks to give her loans and overdrafts, and stole money from friends by stiffing them with the bill for expensive trips and meals
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin who swindled banks, friends and New York hotels out of $275,000 has returned to Instagram after being released from prison early – prompting followers to say ‘the Queen is back in NYC’.
Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison in 2019. She was given time served for the two years she served awaiting trial and was let out seven months early on Thursday for good behavior.
Immediately after her release, Sorokin set up a new Twitter account which used first to troll Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who put her behind bars, and then to ask for money from followers. She later deleted the post.
Shortly after she posted from her Instagram account, sharing a video of her returning to Manhattan from Albion Correctional Facility, a medium-security facility in upstate New York.
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin who swindled banks, friends and New York hotels out of $275,000 has returned to Instagram after being released from prison early – prompting followers to say ‘the Queen is back in NYC’. Pictured, her first Instagram post
Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison in 2019. She was given time served for the two years she served awaiting trial and was let out seven months early on Thursday for good behavior. Pictured, being sentenced in 2019
A subsequent photo shows Sorokin lounging on a bed with sunglasses. The accompanying caption reads: ‘Prison is so exhausting, you wouldn’t know.’
She also shared a photo of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct with the caption: ‘Pleading the fifth’.
Followers (she has almost 75,000 on Instagram) shared their delight at Sorokin’s return, with one commenting: ‘The Queen is free!’ Another added: ‘Queen came back to slay.’
Similar messages of support were shared on Twitter, with some of them being retweeted by Sorokin.
She also revealed plans to move to Brownsville, Brooklyn, and asked: ‘Any tips?’
Her attorney – Audrey A. Thomas confirmed to DailyMail.com yesterday that she’d been let out ‘because of COVID’ and that the Twitter account was hers.
During her spree, Sorokin, 30, also known as Anna Delvey, lived in luxury New York hotel rooms that she couldn’t afford, promised a friend an all-expenses trip to Morocco and then left her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in her quest for a $22 million loan for a private arts club.
Sorokin, whose extraordinary life is being made into a Netflix series starring Ozark’s Julia Garner, was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, theft of services, and larceny in the second degree in April 2019.
Immediately after her release, Sorokin set up a new Twitter account which used first to troll Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who put her behind bars, and then to ask for money from followers. She later deleted the post. Pictured, in a designer hoodie in the profile picture
Sorokin immediately started trolling Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The posts have since been delated. On Twitter Sorokin revealed plans to move to Brooklyn
She was sentenced to serve 4 to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000.
Sorokin was granted parole in October last year.
The Netflix deal reportedly landed Sorokin $100,000, plus ‘tens of thousands of dollars for ‘consulting services’ and royalty rights’, according to AirMail.
It is being produced by Shonda Rhimes’ production company Shondaland, which produced hit series Bridgerton.
However under the ‘Son of Sam’ law, which prevents convicted criminals profiting from the publicity their crimes create, Sorokin is being forced to use the money earned to pay back her victims.
Sorokin was born in Russia but is a German citizen, after her family moved there when she was a teenager.
Living the high life: During her spree, Sorokin, 30, also known as Anna Delvey, lived in luxury New York hotel rooms that she couldn’t afford, promised a friend an all-expenses trip to Morocco and then left her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in her quest for a $22 million loan for a private arts club. Pictured, Sorokin in an Instagram snap
TV adaptation: Sorokin’s extraordinary life is being made into a Netflix series starring Ozark’s Julia Garner. Pictured, Garner on set of TV series Inventing Anna
Prosecutors portrayed Sorokin as a profligate con artist, while her lawyer insisted she was an aspiring businesswoman taken in by New York’s extravagance.
Spodek, her defense attorney, insisted Sorokin had been ‘buying time’ and planned all along to settle her six-figure debts, portraying her as an entrepreneur who got in over her head.
He compared her at one point to Frank Sinatra, saying ‘they both created their own opportunities’ in New York.
‘There’s a little bit of Anna in all of us,’ Spodek said. ‘This is the life she chose to live.’
Sorokin had ambitious business plans to build a private arts club in New York and that she was ‘persistent and she was determined to make her business a reality’, according to her attorney.
She may have led an unethical and unorthodox lifestyle, he added, but Sorokin was ‘enabled every step of the way by a system that favors people with money.’
In trying to prove Sorokin’s intent, Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw said Sorokin told ‘lie after lie’ to prolong a life of luxury she couldn’t afford, providing forged financial records and identifications to banks.
Friend, Rachel Deloache Williams, who wrote about her ordeal with Anna in Vanity Fair, went with Sorokin on the Morocco trip. When Sorokin’s credit cards declined, Williams was forced to put the $62,000 trip on her work card
She lived out of ritzy hotels on an overdrawn account, dined at the finest restaurants and even hired a personal trainer who charged $300 a session, McCaw said.
Sorokin not only assumed a different identity for herself but created a team of ‘imaginary’ assistants, McCaw said, a ruse that lent credence to her efforts to expand her credit. There was, for instance, an accountant who didn’t exist whom Sorokin blamed for delays in wire transfers.
‘All of the defendant’s wire transfers are merely a figment of her imagination,’ McCaw said.
‘These are not white lies. These are lies that help you understand that the defendant, in fact, had criminal intent in this case.’
Sorokin, who adopted the name Anna Delvey, deceived friends and financial institutions alike into believing she had a 60 million euro wealth overseas that would cover her lavish hotel stays and jet-setting lifestyle.
Many believed she was the German heiress she claimed to be given she traveled in celebrity circles and tossed around crisp $100 bills.
But behind the jet-setting lifestyle and expensive designer clothing, prosecutors said Sorokin was simply a fraudster just trying to get a taste of the high life.
Sorokin was born in Russia in 1991 and moved to Germany in 2007 when she was 16 with her younger brother and parents.
Her father had worked as a truck driver and later as an executive at a transport company until it became insolvent in 2013. He then opened a heating-and-cooling business specializing in energy-efficient devices.
HOW ANNA MANAGED TO SECURE MONEY:
Sorokin sought a $22 million loan from Fortress Investment Group in 2017 to fund her arts club after showing the private equity firm fake documents claiming she had a 60 million euro fortune.
They said they would consider it if she put up $100,000 for them to do due diligence, which is basically a background check of her financial records.
She managed to get a $100,000 from a different bank, City National, by convincing them to give her an overdraft that she promised to repay within days.
Sorokin then gave the $100,000 to Fortress.
They spent $45,000 of it carrying out their financial review before Sorokin asked for $55,000 back, claiming she no longer needed their services.
She never repaid City National. Instead, she managed to spend the entire $55,000 within a month to fund her lavish lifestyle.
She also resorted to depositing bad checks and transferring funds out before they bounced – a process called check kiting.
This is how she got the $30,000 to pay 11 Howard via a wire transfer.
Between April 7 and April 11, she deposited $160,000 in bad checks into her Citibank account and transferred $70,000 out before they bounced.
In August, she opened a different account with a different bank, Signature, deposited $15,000 in bad checks and withdrew $8,200 before they bounced.
After moving to London to attend Central Saint Martins fashion school, Sorokin returned to Berlin and interned in the fashion department of a public relations firm.
She then relocated to Paris where she secured a coveted internship at the French fashion magazine Purple. It’s believed to be around this time that she changed her name from Sorokin to Delvey.
Sorokin was already brushing shoulders with rich people in the years before she came to New York and started dazzling Manhattan’s social elite.
Acquaintances say Sorokin had spent several years playing the part of an art-obsessed German heiress across the world.
She rubbed shoulders with the fashion elite at Paris Fashion Week as early as 2013 and was frequently spotted at London nightspots like the Chiltern Firehouse and Loulou’s.
By the time Sorokin arrived in New York in early 2016, she seemingly had the social connections to make a name for herself, as well as a designer-clad wardrobe that exuded wealth.
At the time, she had 40,000 followers on Instagram and was regularly pictured at events and parties with well-to-do people.
She quickly went about proving herself to be an impossibly rich heiress who had plans to shake up New York’s art world.
She made a show of proving she belonged and would regularly be decked out in her now signature Celine glasses, Gucci sandals and high-end buys from Net-a-Porter and Elyse Walker.
Sorokin rented a $400-a-night room for several months at Manhattan’s expensive 11 Howard hotel and was often seen to pass out $100 tips to concierges and Uber drivers.
She would also splash out on shopping sprees in luxury boutiques, expensive personal training sessions and beautician appointments.
The socialite elite were drawn to her and she would regularly host large dinners for celebrities, artists, CEOs and the like at the lavish Le Coucou restaurant in SoHo.
Sorokin kept up the heiress ruse when she went looking for a $22 million loan to fund her new club in November 2016.
Her fall from grace seemingly began when she was kicked out of the 11 Howard hotel in New York in early 2017, after racking up $30,000 of charges and failing to provide a working credit card.
Around the same time she also chartered a private plane for a trip to Nebraska to try and meet billionaire Warren Buffet.
However, the $35,400 bill was never paid so the charter company cancelled the return leg of her journey.
Anna Delvey a.k.a. Anna Sorokin during her trip to Morocco. Prosecutors claim Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, conned friends, banks and hotels out of hundreds of thousands
Upon her return to New York, she was evicted from the 11 Howard hotel and moved to the Mercer hotel around the corner.
Many believed Anna was the German heiress she claimed to be given she traveled in celebrity circles and tossed around crisp $100 bill
She subsequently embarked on a $62,000 extravagant trip to Morocco. Her friend, a former Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Deloache Williams paid for the flights on her work credit card with the assumption she would be reimbursed as promised by Sorokin.
They checked into a $7,000-a-night villa at the five star resort La Mamounia, which Williams also paid for, after Sorokin promised to pay her back when they returned to New York.
The six-day trip was without hiccups for several days until the hotel staff insisted on putting a credit card on file because Sorokin had booked their trip without a working one.
Williams, who said she had $410 in her checking account at the time said the $70,000 balance was more than she earned in a year.
After months of hassling her for the money, Williams reported Sorokin to police and then the New York district attorney’s office.
Sorokin was then arrested in October 2017 for stealing $275,000 through multiple scams between November 2016 and August 2017.
At a parole board hearing in October 2019, Sorokin apologized for her crimes for the first time.
‘I just want to say that I’m really ashamed and I’m really sorry for what I did,’ she said according to the transcript of the hearing, the New York Post reported.
‘I completely understand that a lot of people suffered when I thought I was not doing anything wrong.’
Sorokin at her trial at the New York State Supreme Court on April 24, 2019
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