Judge sentences fake German heiress Anna Sorokin to 4 to 12 years behind bars
Prosecutors say Sorokin conned her way into living a jet-setting lifestyle in New York, asking friends to front big bills that she never paid back; Laura Ingle reports.
A faux German heiress, found guilty last month of swindling some $200,000 through a series of scams, was sentenced Thursday to four to 12 years behind bars.
Anna Sorokin, 28, was convicted of grand larceny and theft of services.
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Moments before she was sentenced, Sorokin briefly addressed the court, saying, “I apologize for the mistakes I made.”
At the sentencing Thursday afternoon in Manhattan state court, Judge Diane Kiesel said she was “stunned by the depth of the defendant’s deception” in her defrauding of New York banks and hotels.
Sorokin’s attorney insisted she intended to pay the money back. But prosecutors said she has “not a cent” to her name.
Sorokin went by the alias Anna Delvey when she defrauded financial institutions and Manhattan celebrity circles into believing she had a fortune of about $67 million overseas that could cover her jet-setting lifestyle, high-end clothing and lavish hotel stays.
The 28-year-old falsely claimed her father was a diplomat or an oil baron, and falsified bank records and forged her identity to further the scam.
Her ruse included an application for a $22 million loan to fund a private arts club, complete with exhibitions, installations and pop-up shops, prosecutors said.
She was denied that loan but persuaded one bank to lend her $100,000 that she failed to repay.
In all, prosecutors accused her of stealing some $275,000, including $35,400 for a plane she chartered to and from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it will seek to deport Sorokin to Germany following her release from state custody. ICE said Sorokin had overstayed her 2017 visa.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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