Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed $100 tips—all the more reason to believe she was the German heiress worth roughly $60 million she said she was. But behind the jet-set lifestyle and pricey threads, prosecutors say, was a fraudster. Sorokin, 28, lived in luxury New York City hotel rooms she couldn't afford, promised a friend an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco and then stuck her with the $62,000 bill, and peddled bogus bank statements in a quest for a $22 million loan, the Manhattan District Attorney's office alleges. On Wednesday, the AP reports the one-time darling of the Big Apple social scene is scheduled to stand trial on grand larceny and theft of services charges alleging she swindled $275,000 in a 10-month odyssey that ended in a cell at Rikers Island.
Sorokin arrived in the world of champagne wishes and caviar dreams in 2016 with a new name (Anna Delvey) and a wardrobe to match (Celine sunglasses and Gucci sandals). She made a show of passing crisp Benjamins to Uber drivers and hotel concierges but gave varying accounts for the source of her wealth, according to people who knew her. They said she'd claim her father was a diplomat, an oil baron, or a solar panel muckity-muck; he's really a former trucker who runs a heating-and-cooling business. Sorokin was arrested in October 2017 and has been jailed since. She faces deportation to Germany regardless of the outcome of the trial because authorities say she overstayed her visa. Her story, however, may stick around. Shonda Rhimes has announced she is creating a television series about Sorokin, whose Instagram bio says: "soon on Netflix." (The AP has much more here.)
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