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 Anna Sorokin, 28, was better known to her Manhattan friends as
Anna Delvey, a would-be socialite decked out in expensive
clothes whose credit cards came back declined with unnerving
frequency despite her talk of having a trust fund.
Before giving nearly the maximum possible sentence, Judge Diane
Kiesel, of New York state Supreme Court, rebuked Sorokin as
"blinded by the glitter and glamor of New York City."
"She wanted everything that big money could buy, except that Ms.
Sorokin didn't have big money," Kiesel said in court, decrying
Sorokin's taste for Sancerre wine and private jets. "All she had
was a big scam."
Prosecutors say Sorokin stole $275,000 from others while
pretending she had a fortune of 60 million euros ($67 million)
through multiple acts of glamorous grifting in 2016 and 2017.
Sorokin has already spent more than 500 days in jail. She
appeared in court in handcuffs wearing a black dress, black
shoes and glasses with thick black frames.
Prosecutors pointed to her use of a stylist to pick out outfits
for her trial as evidence that Sorokin lacked remorse.
"The only time she showed emotions was when she was crying
because she was upset about the clothing she had received from
the Department of Corrections," Catherine McCaw, a prosecutor
with the Manhattan district attorney's office, told the court.
Sorokin, who was born in Russia before moving with her family to
Germany as a teenager, spoke only to say she wanted "to
apologize for the mistakes I made."
Moments later, the judge waved a letter of support from three of
Sorokin's relatives, saying she did not know for sure if that
document, too, was a forgery.
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"THIS HAS CONSEQUENCES"
Prosecutors say Sorokin used forged bank statements to seek a loan
of $22 million from a bank to fund a private arts club she wanted to
open in Manhattan. She managed to get a $100,000 loan, which
prosecutors said she never repaid. Sorokin used about $30,000 of
that to cover her overdue bills at the fashionable 11 Howard hotel,
where she was living.
Prosecutors said Sorokin also deposited bad checks amounting to
$15,000 in an account with Signature Bank, managing to withdraw
$8,200 in cash before the checks bounced, and used fake wire
transfer receipts to trick victims.
A jury found her guilty on four counts of grand larceny and four
counts of theft of services last month.
Sorokin's daily looks became the subject of a dedicated Instagram
account with thousands of followers, which the judge nodded to in
her sentencing remarks.
"I know she is a trendsetter and an influencer," Kiesel said, "so I
think the message should be to the defendant and many of her fans
out there that this has consequences."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that
Sorokin was a German citizen who had illegally overstayed in the
United States. The agency said it will seek to send her back to
Germany once her sentence is served. Sorokin will be able to seek
parole after she has served four years.
The writers Shonda Rhimes and Lena Dunham are separately working on
adapting the Anna Delvey story for the screen, according to news
reports.
This, too, did Sorokin no favors with the judge, who said that
Sorokin, in jailhouse interviews, did not express remorse but
instead "worried about who would play her in the Netflix series."
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie
Adler)
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