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Sorokin on her way to Art Basel in 2015. Photo: Instagram.
Sorokin on her way to Art Basel in 2015. Photo: Instagram.

Art-World Grifter Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey, Found Guilty of Larceny

Following a monthlong trial, Anna Sorokin—better known as Anna Delvey, the fake German heiress who scammed people out of thousands of dollars and who attempted to borrow more than $20 million to set up a contemporary arts foundation—was found guilty of multiple charges by a New York State Supreme Court jury on Thursday, April 25, the New York Times reports.

Among the charges were second-degree grand larceny, theft of services, and one count of first-degree attempted grand larceny. Prosecutors claimed that Sorokin managed to cheat people out of approximately $275,000. However, she was found not guilty of first-degree attempted grand larceny for attempting to obtain a $22 million loan from City National Bank and of stealing $60,000 from a friend for a lavish trip to Morocco. Sorokin faces up to fifteen years in prison for the second-degree larceny charge, as well as deportation.

For years, Sorokin posed as a German heiress with a 60-million-euro trust fund. The twenty-eight-year-old grifter is actually a Russian immigrant from a middle-class family who moved to New York in 2014 after an internship at Purple fashion magazine in Paris. She was able to sustain an extravagant lifestyle, wear designer clothes, stay at five-star hotels, and charter a private plane by using forged financial statements, making up fake financial advisers and accountants, and promising banks and vendors that she would pay them by wire transfer.

Sorokin tried to acquire funds from various banks, hedge funds, and investors for the Anna Delvey Foundation—a private club on Park Avenue South that she said would include an art gallery, a nightclub, and a bar—and even convinced Gabriel Andres Calatrava to design the space. The son of architect Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Oculus for the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub in Lower Manhattan, Calatrava worked with Sorokin on the project, which was slated to cost up to $40 million, for two years.

“As proven at trial, Anna Sorokin committed real white-collar felonies over the course of her lengthy masquerade,” said district attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. “I thank the jury for its service in this complex trial, as well as my office’s prosecutors and investigators for their meticulous investigation and resolve to ensure that Sorokin faces real justice for her many thefts and lies.”

While her days living as a Manhattan socialite are over, Sorokin will be given the Netflix treatment. An upcoming series based on her illegal escapades, which went viral after New York Magazine published a profile of her on The Cut last year, will be produced by Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy.

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