Who is Anna Sorokina: A fake Russian millionaire who deceived the American elite

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What Anna Sorokina managed to do, many still do not enter into their heads. The girl for several years deceived banks, hotels and casual acquaintances, many of whom considered her a friend. The legend of Anna’s membership in the elite was so convincing that the deception was revealed very slowly.

In 2019, Sorokin was sentenced to a real 12-year prison term, but was released in early April 2021. It’s thanks to Netflix: the streaming service bought Anna the rights to film her story for $320,000. . This money enabled her not only to be released, but also to pay off certain debts.

The Netflix series is called Reinventing Anna. The main role in the drama was played by Julia Garner – the star of the films “Ozark”, “The Americans”, “Maniac”.

We bring you Anna’s story – from A to Z.

Anna Sorokina was born in 1991 in the city of Domodedovo near Moscow in the most ordinary family of a truck driver and a housewife. In 2007, a 16-year-old girl moved to Germany with her parents. As Anna’s father tried to provide for the family, she got used to the new society and tried to find her place in it.

According to the New York Times, in 2010, 19-year-old Sorokin moved to Paris, where she entered the University of Design. It was then that the girl began to introduce herself to people as Anna Delvi, because an insidious plan was already ripening in her head: she realized that she wanted to live big, and it was desirable that she does not have to work hard. For this, connections were needed, for which Sorokina turned to fashion journalism: she got a job as an intern in the glossy magazine Purple. The salary of 400 euros per month, of course, was not enough to live in the European capital, but Anna’s parents helped – they paid for the apartment and gave pocket money. Tolerable… But Sorokina wanted more.

In 2013, Anna was lucky: she was sent on a business trip to New York for Fashion Week. This is where her plan matured: Sorokina immediately went to the local branch of the magazine and said that she wanted to work for them and, therefore, stay in the Big Apple. Anna saw: here the prospect of meeting influential and useful people is much greater. And she got acquainted, and these, in turn, began to initiate her into secular life.

In high society, the 22-year-old appeared as Anna Delvey, a German and heiress to the huge fortune her millionaire father had made. And they believed her! “There are so many people with trust funds in the party…And they’re all your best friends, but you don’t know anything about any of them,” one of the acquaintances shared with emotion. ‘Anna when her deception was exposed.

But until now it was still very far away, but for now Sorokina-Delvi led a luxurious life. Moreover, by then she had already figured out how to live beautifully without the need to go to school, let alone go to the office.

For four years, Anna skillfully played the wealthy heiress of the highest circles. She lived in a luxurious $400-a-night Soho hotel room, dined only in the most expensive restaurants, and dressed exclusively in designer clothes.

His scheme was simple – just like in the movie “Heartbreakers” starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. Anna paid for the luxurious life of her middle-class friends so that they wouldn’t doubt her wealth, but when she met much richer people, her “random” credit card wouldn’t work. “When people are so rich, they can just forget about the money,” Anna’s friends said in an interview, which explained the ideality of her plan.

She took out loans by forging documents and making bank clerks speak to their teeth with her legends about her super-rich dad. The debt for a hotel room was also piling up, but the hotel staff never thought to evict the guest – the daughter of a millionaire. Sometimes she still paid off her debts (so they wouldn’t reach the police), but then they began to grow with renewed vigor.

Of course, among all Anna’s acquaintances there were those who found her suspicious and did not succumb to the tricks. For example, DJ El Di, who didn’t like Sorokina-Delvi right away. Nevertheless, she reluctantly continued to communicate with the supposed heiress of a millionaire, until a curious incident occurred. Anna was hosting a party in Paris, and a few days later she called El Dee and asked for a loan of 35,000 euros, explaining that her card had been unexpectedly blocked and the hotel needed to be paid immediately. El Di did not believe this fable and no longer communicated with Anna.

There were very few such failures in Sorokina-Delvey’s life. The vast majority of his new acquaintances were fascinated. Among them, for example, the photo editor of the magazine Rachel Williams. According to the girl, she was literally bewitched by Anna. “She came into my life in Gucci sandals and Céline glasses, showed the flawless world of hotels, Coucou dinners, infrared saunas and spas in Morocco. And after that, she made me 62 poorer 000 dollars,” Rachel confessed.

The girls met in 2016, when Anna’s plan had already been worked out to perfection, thanks also to her ability to appear at all city parties and get into the lenses of various photographers. The rather high-profile instagram also put a smokescreen on the face (the social network was recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation). Rachel and Anna began to communicate, spend a lot of time together, and in May 2017 flew to Morocco for vacation. Sorokina-Delvy asked her friend to foot the bill for two, promising to return all the money in the near future, and Williams, not noticing the catch, pulled out her bank card.

During the vacation itself, Anna’s credit card “stopped working” at some point, and Rachel took over all expenses. The money spent on this trip, Williams did not earn even for a year, so the situation was a dead end for her, but she believed that her friend would reimburse her for all expenses. Alas, Sorokina-Delvi, despite promises, did not return the money. The girls stopped talking, and after a while Rachel discovered that Anna was accused of fraud and large-scale embezzlement.

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Sorokin got caught for very obvious reasons. His legend started collapsing like a house of cards when there were too many deceived people and organizations. Affected restaurants, hotels and acquaintances began to seek reimbursement through the police.

For example, one of the banks became alert when Anna (having previously falsified all the necessary documents and – oh, miracle! – obtained the support of influential people) tried to take out a loan in the amount of 22 million dollars, allegedly to open a fund. She wanted to buy a historic building in midtown Manhattan and turn it into an art space called the Anna Delvey Foundation. The bank’s decision was delayed due to the fact that Anna’s caption seemed implausible to one of the employees. Additional papers were requested, Sorokina-Delvi also forged them, but while everything was carefully double-checked, the Russian scammer had already been arrested.

When Anna was arrested, she managed to get loans for a small fee. Friends then reminisced: she spent so quickly and a lot, as if trying to get rid of the money as quickly as possible. We don’t know if Sorokina felt they would come for her soon, but her desire to greedily taste all the delights of a luxurious life is understandable.

From the start, Sorokina was offered a deal: in exchange for a confession, he was promised three to nine years in prison. Anna refused, hoping that this time she could get away with it dry. She turned trips to court hearings into a spectacle – she even hired a stylist who curated her images. Public relations worked – the whole world was talking about Anna. Only now the jury did not succumb to the charm of Sorokina and delivered its verdict: 12 years in prison, as well as payment of debts in the amount of 199,000 dollars and a fine of 24,000 dollars .

If it seems to you that the amount is not enough, you are not mistaken – that’s how it is. The amount of money spent over the years by the Russian scammer was much more. However, many episodes were never proven, and Anna justified herself on them. So, for example, her friend Rachel Williams was unlucky: this fraud went unpunished for Sorokina.

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In October 2020, it became known that Anna Sorokina was granted the right to be released from prison earlier than expected, and the girl, who had just turned 30, breathed the air of freedom in a few months – at spring 2021.

The girl has Napoleonic plans for her future life: while still in prison, she began to write memoirs, but now she plans to start studying law and open a fund bearing her name. Sorokina’s lawyer confirms that we will know more about this girl. At least in the Netflix series Inventing Anna.

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