How a Russian emigrant became the most famous fraudster of our time: Anna Sorokina

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She called herself Anna Delvi, the heiress of the German millionaire, and easily charmed the high society of New York. And then she lightened the wallet of new acquaintances by several tens of thousands of dollars. But not only ordinary people fell victim to the charm of the daughter of a trucker from Russia. Anna Sorokina, having no money, managed to live in the most expensive hotels and even took out loans from banks until she was arrested and convicted of fraud. Her story is so impressive that Netflix decided to make a TV series about her.

From Domodedovo to New York

The parents of Anna Sorokina, who was born in 1991, were not at all millionaires, her dad worked as a truck driver, and her mother's occupation is unknown. Whatever it was, but in 2007 the Sorokins with two children, Anna and her younger brother, moved to Germany for permanent residence, where their father first opened his own transport company. But this did not work out, and Vadim Sorokin switched to selling climate control equipment. The family did not live in poverty, but there was no need to talk about some kind of luxury.

16-year-old Anna finished school in German Eschweiler, and the girl's classmates later recalled how difficult it was for her to learn German. She spoke English better, but her speech had a vague European accent. By the way, she didn’t succeed in German until the end. But she received a document on secondary education, after which she went to London, where she studied at the prestigious St. Martin's College, the oldest English-speaking design university. Paul Smith, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and other celebrities have graduated from this educational institution at different times.

Three years later, in 2010 Anna Sorokina moved to Paris to deepen her knowledge of design and fashion. Even then, she began to introduce herself as Anna Delvi, and in parallel with her studies, she became an intern at the fashion magazine Purple. The salary of 400 euros seemed too modest for a girl with requests, but her parents helped her daughter to cope with financial difficulties.

Anna first came to New York in 2013, while on a business trip at Fashion Week. True, she did not return to Paris soon, and used the opportunity to move to Purple's New York office. Even then, Anna Delvi began to actively make new acquaintances and suddenly turned from a Russian emigrant (she carefully concealed this fact of her biography) into the heiress of a German multimillionaire.

Anna Delvey's American Dream

The first mentions of Anna's attempts to appear in the image of a rich and somewhat bored heiress of a multimillion-dollar fortune date back to 2014. At one of the parties, she met a girl who had already gained fame as a talented DJ, able to rock any crowd. Ellie Dee later recalled that when she first met at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, she did not like Anna Delvey. She seemed arrogant and aggressive, bragged about brands and looked pretty ridiculous. When the hotel promoter asked Ellie Dee to shelter Anna for the night, the DJ refused, and in the morning she found a new acquaintance sleeping in the car in the parking lot.

Later, they crossed paths many times at social events, and then met in Paris. Anna Delvey invited Ellie Dee to a party at the Hotel Du Louvre, where expensive French champagne flowed like water. Ellie Dee, along with a friend, accepted the invitation, but left much earlier, unable to withstand the too tense atmosphere. True, the very next morning Anna called Ellie and … asked to pay the bill of 35 thousand euros. Allegedly, her card was blocked, but she will return the money within a few days, when the issue with the bank is resolved. Ellie refused and never saw Anna again, but heard about her when she was arrested.

Within a year and a half, starting in 2016, Anna Deliv, who at that time lived permanently in New York, managed to charm half of the high society. She lived in expensive hotels and did not pay the bill, persuading the administration to wait for the bank transfer to arrive. Hotels have always met the requests of a wealthy client, because people without funds are unlikely to settle in a room that is not cheap.

She attended all social events, talked about how she was going to open an art center for the arts in New York, where stunning exhibitions of contemporary art would be held, restaurants and entertainment establishments would be open. She even applied to banks for multimillion-dollar loans and was looking for investors for her cultural center. However, even the legendary John Cohen, the same lawyer who was investigating the scam of the hero of the film "The Wolf of Wall Street", at first believed the "heiress of the millionaire."

Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Deloach Williams also fell victim to the charm of the talented fraudster. The latter was fascinated by her new girlfriend, and therefore gladly responded to her offer to relax together in Morocco. As a result, it was Rachel who paid for both tickets and accommodation at an expensive resort. A friend promised to return the money in the amount of 62 thousand dollars. And, of course, I had no intention of doing this at all. Rachel waited exactly until she found out that Anna Delvi was facing charges of large-scale fraud. At the same time, the amount that the photo editor paid for a vacation with a friend significantly exceeded her annual income.

Finita la commedia

For quite a long time, Anna Sorokina enjoyed the reputation of a wealthy heiress who had some temporary difficulties with a card, with an account, or with a bank transfer in her name. She even managed to get some loans on fake documents. As a result, the deceived acquaintances of Anna and representatives of the hotels in which the girl lived for free turned to the police. The investigation lasted almost two years and ended with a prison sentence in May 2019. She spent 1 year and 8 months in prison instead of the minimum four.

In prison, the girl began to keep an online diary, regularly delighting readers with new entries. Not forgetting at the same time in the "Contacts" section to indicate how she can be thanked, and she accepts payment in cryptocurrency. In 2020, the enterprising Anna appeared before the early release commission and was released from prison three months later. At the hearing, she assured everyone of her complete remorse and added that she was ashamed of what she had done.

But even Anna Sorokina's lawyer is sure that the world will hear about her more than once. In the meantime, the girl is going to study law and become the founder of an investment fund. And Netflix has already paid her a fee of 320 thousand dollars for the filming of the series "Inventing Anna" about the most famous fraudster of our time. Anna has already spent most of it on paying compensation to those who suffered from her actions.

In the near future, Anna Sorokina should be deported to Germany, since she is a citizen of this country, and the American visa of the brilliant fraudster has already expired.

Anna Sorokina's "colleague" John McAfee is called the most grandiose swindler of the XXI century. The creator of a very popular antivirus, which was once used by almost everyone, John McAfee has long been suspected of a number of crimes, but could only be caught on taxes.