NEW YORK: A German-Russian fraudster who tricked New York high society into believing she was a wealthy heiress and stealing more than $200,000 was jailed for up to 12 years.
Anna Sorokin, 28, a Russian truck driver’s daughter who had been living in Germany, reinvented herself as socialite Anna Delvey on arrival in the US in 2016, spinning an elaborate back story she hoped would help her swindle millions of dollars.
She had been convicted of multiple counts of grand larceny as well as theft of services, having conned several banks into granting her loans of tens of thousands of dollars.
“Anna Sorokin committed real white-collar felonies over the course of her lengthy masquerade,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance said after her conviction.
New York judge Diane Kiesel passed a sentence of four to 12 years and ordered Sorokin — wearing a sombre but chic black dress and thick-framed glasses — to pay a fine of $24,000 and restitution of nearly $200,000.Her scams began soon after her arrival in the US, as which she insinuated herself into high-rolling New York social circles.
From November 2016 to August 2017, she managed to travel free of charge on private jets and lived for months at luxury Manhattan hotels without paying the bill, according to New York prosecutors.
In one incident, the court heard, she skipped out on an $11,000 tab at The Beekman hotel in Manhattan after a 16-night stay.
According to a first-hand account by a former Vanity Fair photo editor of Sorokin’s financial manipulation, the fake heiress put on an emotional outburst to avoid paying for a 2017 stay at the five-star Moroccan resort La Mamounia.
She also reportedly fleeced aviation company Blade when she reneged on the bill for a $35,000 private jet flight to visit billionaire investor Warren Buffett in Omaha.
— AFP
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