Fake German Heiress Behind Art Scam Gets 4 to 12 Years in Prison
- May 09, 2019 15:29
In Manhattan state court on Thursday, self-styled socialite Anna Sorokin, a.k.a. Anna Delvey, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for second-degree grand larceny and theft of services.
"This defendant’s alleged criminal conduct spans from check fraud to six-figure stolen loans," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. said in 2017.
Sorokin, 28, put herself in “the best position to take money” from wealthy art collectors, financial institutions, friends and auctioneers, and schemed a members-only arts club, based on a web of lies, including that she was a German heiress worth some 60 million euros. The upaid bills and bank loans started stacking up before her arrest in 2017.
Sorokin falsified bank records to pursue a $22 million loan for her private arts club.
Judge Diane Kiesel said she was “stunned by the depth of the defendant’s deception, her labyrinthine lies that kept her con afloat.”
Two charges were dropped, including the alleged scam of a friend who footed a $62,000 bill for a Morocco vacation that Sorokin supposedly said she'd pay back, and didn't.
Sorokin, who was born in Russia, is a German national and faces deportation to Germany due to an overstayed visa, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She was ordered to pay $199,000 in restitution, as well as a fine of $24,000.
Shonda Rhimes has a Netflix project in the works about Sorokin, who was dubbed the "SoHo grifter."