REAL JAIL FOR FAKE HEIRESS
Judge hits swindler with 4 to 12 years
The fashion-conscious fake German heiress convicted of forging her identity in an effort to scam a bank for a $22 million loan was sentenced Thursday to four to 12 years in prison.
Anna Sorokin was also ordered by Judge Diane Kiesel to pay almost $199,000 in restitution, as well as a fine of $24,000.
Sorokin — clad in a simple knee-length black dress with a black sash tied in a bow around her waist — was humble at her sentencing hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“I apologize for the mistakes I made,” she said before she was sentenced.
Besides being found guilty of faking the loan application, Sorokin — who carried out her schemes under the alias Anna Delvey — was also convicted of trying to steal millions more through multiple scams. She was also convicted of stealing $275,000 from friends and acquaintances while pretending to be a wealthy German heiress with a $60 million trust fund.
Her lawyer, Todd Spodek, had compared Sorokin to crooner Frank Sinatra, whose handlers hired fake fans to boost his appea
But at the he , ane Kiesel said Sorokin’s scams brought another artist to mind.
“I heard a different song in 22 days of trial,” Kiesel said. “I heard Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘Blinded by the Light.’
“Anna Sorokin, who reinvented herself as Anna Delvey, was blinded by the glitter and the glamour of New York City,” the judge said. “She wasn’t so much interested in the serious work of raising legitimate money to build an art foundation. She was [interested] in the designer clothes, champagne, private jets, boutique hotel experiences, and the exotic travel that she thought went along with it, everything that big money could buy.
“Except Ms. Sorokin didn’t have big money,” Kiesel said. “All she had was a big scam.”
Kiesel said she was stunned by Sorokin’s “labyrinth of lies.”
Sorokin didn’t give up being a fashion plate during her trial — she delayed the proceedings several times over her wardrobe. Once, the judge reprimanded her after she refused to come to court because she didn’t like her outfit.
Prosecutors say Sorokin fooled everyone from friends and financial institutions, convincing them she was a rich heiress when she was nothing more than a freeloader whose scams netted her more than $275,000.
Banks, hotels and a private airline company all made “exceptions” for Sorokin, 28, because they believed she was a German heiress, her lawyer said. Sorokin said she was trying to raise money to open her own social club.
Among the friends Sorokin was convicted of bilking was former Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Williams, who testified that Sorokin invited her on an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco and then stuck her with the $70,000 tab.
Williams said in court that her story of her experience with Sorokin landed her over $300,000 in book deals and an exclusive rights deal with HBO.
Lena Dunham is reportedly working on the HBO series about the case, and Shonda Rhimes has announced she’s working on a show about Sorokin for Netflix.