Russian Anna Sorokin claimed to be a rich heiress from Germany called Anna Delvey and lived in one of New York's most exclusive hotels
She was an impossibly rich European heiress who was going to shake up New York’s chic art world, a young woman who mixed with stars and doled out money with all the casual abandon of someone who has never had to worry about it.
Even in a city used to huge wealth, Anna Delvey made an immediate impression on status-obsessed Manhattan when she arrived in 2017 with apparently unlimited finances and a grand plan to set up an arts foundation that would include galleries, a private members’ club, bar and restaurant.
The city’s social elite flocked to her and she would hold large dinners for celebrities, artists, athletes and chief executives at the expensive Le Coucou restaurant. Another glittering bauble on Manhattan’s money-obsessed social scene, Ms Delvey was seen at all the best parties — not just in New York but also London and Berlin.
Banks lent her money, hotels let her stay for months without presenting a bill, and a friend was persuaded to pick up her $62,000 (£48,000) bill when they went on a deluxe holiday to Marrakesh, Morocco. They knew they’d be repaid. After all, this was the sort of person who, when she wanted to attend a weekend shareholders’ meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, simply chartered a private jet.
Unfortunately, Ms Delvey — who moved to the U.S. from Germany — was very far from what she seemed, according to a fraud trial that is gripping New York. Locals have already nicknamed her the ‘Faux de Cologne’.
Although she has invariably cut a glamorous figure, the court has heard that her real name is Anna Sorokin, she comes from Russia, and her father is a former lorry driver.
In a grandiose scam that prosecutors say lasted ten months before she was finally rumbled, the 28-year-old is alleged to have defrauded banks, law firms, hotels, fashion designers, private jet companies and supposed friends to the tune of at least $275,000 (£211,000). The woman dubbed the ‘socialite scammer’ has denied 16 charges, including grand theft and larceny, that could land her in prison for 15 years.
‘She was born in Russia and has not a cent to her name as far as we can determine,’ said prosecutor Catherine McCaw.
Her case, high on glamour and seemingly capturing the social-media age — in which what matters boils down merely to the appearance of extreme wealth — has captured the attention of Hollywood.
The daughter of a lorry driver is alleged to have chartered a private jet once to get to a shareholders' meeting in Omaha, Nebraska
She also asked a friend to pay her $62,000 (£48,000) holiday bill after a deluxe holiday in Marrakesh, Morocco
Netflix and the American network HBO are reportedly making films about her; Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie are said to be interested in playing the mysterious Sorokin.
There’s no denying her chutzpah.
When her trial opened last week, it emerged that Sorokin — currently languishing in New York’s grim Rikers Island jail — had hired a celebrity stylist, who has worked with her to sort out her wardrobe for her court appearances.
On the first day it was a low-cut black Miu Miu dress with a choker that has become a social-media sensation, followed the next day by a delicate Yves Saint Laurent blouse matched with Victoria Beckham slacks. By the third day, her trial outfits had become a fixture, but photographers waiting to snap her latest ensemble were disappointed when she failed to emerge.
She lived in one of New York's luxury boutique hotels 11 Howard during the charade
It came to an end in June 2017 when she was arrested
Her lawyer said she was feeling nauseous and, possibly more pertinently, had ‘logistical issues’ with her wardrobe.
Her clothes were dirty and not pressed, he complained, and she didn’t want to appear in her Rikers Island uniform. The judge was not amused and Sorokin eventually appeared in court-supplied white shirt and black trousers.
Some might argue that wearing hugely expensive clothes to a trial where one is accused of living the high life on other people’s money isn’t the cleverest strategy.
However, the wardrobe appears to be a conscious decision by the defence to portray Sorokin as a classic New York striver determined to make her name in a fiercely competitive city.
Her lawyer, Todd Spodek, told jurors that she was simply trying to ‘fake it until she could make it’.
Having seen how the mere appearance of wealth was enough to open doors in New York, where the social order was ‘easily seduced by glamour and glitz’, Sorokin was merely trying to buy time, said Mr Spodek. As soon as she had launched her business she was going to repay her debts, he added, and that she never intended to commit any crime.
Anna Sorokin walks into the courtroom in Manhattan on Friday scowling after refusing to appear because she was not happy with her outfit. She is shown in prison clothes, a far cry from the designer outfit she was put in by her stylist the day before
Sorokin cried in front of the judge then was allowed to leave the courtroom to change to re-enter
The attorney quoted from Frank Sinatra’s song New York, New York, noting that ‘making a brand new start of it’ in the city ‘resonates with
