Anna Sorokin, a would-be socialite who lived a lavish lifestyle of travel and parties after scamming a series of banks, hotels and wealthy acquaintances, has been found guilty on a number of theft-related charges by a jury in Manhattan.
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Sorokin, who went by the name Anna Delvey, was born in the former Soviet Union and moved to Germany, as a child, before relocating to New York, where she claimed to be the daughter of a wealthy overseas diplomat or oil baron, and the heir to a $67 million fortune.
Amongst other things, the 28-year-old used falsified financial records to apply for a $22 million loan to fund a private arts club, and while that was ultimately refused, she successfully persuaded another bank to loan her $100,000, which was not paid back.
She also promised a friend, Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Williams, an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco, including $7000-per-night accommodation in Marrakech, but then skipped out on the $62,000 bill. Williams was then forced to put the tab on a company credit card.
“She walked into my life in Gucci sandals and Céline glasses, and showed me a glamorous, frictionless world of hotel living and Le Coucou dinners and infra-red saunas and Moroccan vacations,” Williams wrote in an essay about the experience. “And then she made my $62,000 disappear.”
After a month-long trial – part of which she refused to attend because she was unhappy with her court clothes – Anna Sorokin was found guilty on four counts of theft of services, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny.
She was acquitted on another two larceny-related charges, but is due to be sentenced on the remaining counts on May 9. Depending on the outcome of that, she also faces deportation to Germany, having over-stayed her US visa.
You can read a truly wild New York Times account of Anna Delvey’s scam here, and you can read Rachel Williams’ Vanity Fair piece here.
