The hoax of an heiress marks the treatment of a celebrity and carries charges

NEW YORK – Anna Sorokin traveled in circles of celebrities and tipped $ 100 – one more reason to believe that she was the German heiress than she said. But prosecutors say that behind the lifestyle of the jet set and his expensive sons, was a fraudster who was looking for friends, banks and hotels for a taste of the high life.

Sorokin, 28, lived in luxury hotel rooms in New York that she could not afford, promised a friend a fresh trip to Morocco, and then cashed her bill of 62 $ 000 and peddled false bank statements in search of $ 22 million. loan, according to the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

Wednesday, the darling of the social scene Big Apple should be judged for theft and theft of services, alleging to have swindled $ 275,000 in a 10-month odyssey that had seen her flee to Omaha and Marrakech before d & # 39; 39, land in a cell. at Rikers Island.

"His project was to claim to be a wealthy German heiress with about $ 60 million of funds held abroad," said Attorney Catherine McCaw after Sorokin's arrest in October 2017. "She is born in Russia and does not have a penny in his name as far as we can determine. "

Sorokin's lawyer, Todd Spodek, did not answer a phone message left on Tuesday. At a hearing last month, he said that Sorokin is "presumed innocent and that he has never intended to commit a theft".

Sorokin, imprisoned since his arrest, risks being deported to Germany, regardless of the outcome of the trial, as the authorities claim that she has exceeded her visa. His story, however, can stay. Shonda Rhimes, the force behind "Gray's Anatomy" and Scandal, "announced that she was creating a television series on Sorokin, whose bio Instagram says" soon on Netflix ".

Sorokin arrived in the world of champagne dreams and caviar dreams in 2016 with a new name (Anna Delvey) and a custom-made wardrobe (Celine sunglasses, Gucci sandals and Net-a high-end purchases). -Porter and Elyse Walker). She proved her affiliation by passing neat Benjamins to Uber drivers and hotel concierges, but she explained the source of her wealth, according to the people who knew her.

At different times, they said, she would claim that her father was a diplomat, an oil baron or a muckity-muck of solar panels. In reality, his father told New York magazine he is a former trucker who runs a heating and air conditioning business.

At first, people around Sorokin did not see the red flag when she asked them to put their credit cards in a taxi and on a plane – she sometimes said she was having trouble transferring her holdings in Europe. , they said – and they laughed at it as if it had been forgotten. when they had to track her down to pay them back.

"It was a magic trick," wrote Rachel Williams, Vanity Fair, the friend of the trip to Morocco. "I'm embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the public too." Anna was a beautiful New York dream, like one of those nights that never seems to end. come."

While she was on the party scene in New York, prosecutors said that Sorokin had begun talking about her intention to spend tens of millions of dollars for the construction of a private arts club. offering exhibitions, installations and ephemeral shops. She thought of calling it the Anna Delvey Foundation.

Sorokin pursued the ruse of the heiress while she was looking for a loan of $ 22 million for the club in November 2016, prosecutors said. She claimed that the loan would be secured by a UBS letter of credit in Switzerland and that she submitted statements purporting to justify her assets, according to an overview of the charges.

One bank rejected Sorokin because she "did not have enough cash to repay her loans," said the prosecutor. She bailed out another company when she was forced to meet with a UBS banker who could check her holdings, prosecutors said.

During the process, prosecutors said Sorokin had convinced a bank to lend him $ 100,000 to cover the due diligence costs. She ended up keeping $ 55,000 and "wasted those funds on personal expenses in about a month," said the attorney. A few months later, in May 2017, Sorokin would have chartered a plane for the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, without ever paying the $ 35,400 bill.

Bankrupt and facing a big bill in a downtown Manhattan hotel in July 2017, Sorokin pleaded with a police officer to announce the bailout, prosecutors said.

"I do not have any money or credit cards.I am waiting for my aunt from Germany.She will pay," said Sorokin, according to court documents. "I do not try to run, why do you make a big deal about it? Give me five minutes and I can charge a friend."