Fake heiress who fooled America’s elite says being called a sociopath is a compliment
The fraudster known as the “false heiress” takes criticism of her as a “sociopath” as a compliment, she revealed in her first post-prison interview.
Anna Sorokin, 30, a German citizen of Russian descent who moved to the United States in 2013 has been charged with robbery after she fooled New York’s elite for several years, posing as a wealthy heiress named Anna Delvey. Her crimes have earned her the nickname “false heiress”.
She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for her crimes in 2019, but was released earlier for good behavior on February 11 and is now living temporarily at the luxury NoMad hotel in New York City.
In an interview with Sunday Times, Sorokin, who faces deportation to Germany, declined to say whether she was ashamed of her crimes.
She also responded to criticism from one of her victims, who described her as a “sociopath”.
“I actually see it as a compliment because they see Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs as sociopaths, so if they think of it that way, I’ll take it,” she said.
In her first interview since her release, she added that the prison was an “unnecessary waste of time,” called the charges against her “an insult to her intelligence” and bragged that the guards treated her like a woman. “celebrity”.
She also described her time in prison as an intellectual challenge where she had to figure out how to get the guards to collect her things without being able to offer anything in return.
She also spoke about the hierarchies within the prison, describing the “baby killers” as being at the bottom of the ladder, adding that many women are locked up because of the crimes of their boyfriends.
Sorokin was also questioned about Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite currently incarcerated in a New York prison, accused of trafficking girls to be sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019. “It’s kind of like they were using him because they couldn’t have him. [Epstein] and prosecutors need someone to shame in public, ”she said. “I feel like it would have been different if he was still alive.”
Sorokin tricked friends, hotels, and even banks into giving him money between 2016 and 2017.
She claimed to be the daughter of a mysterious oil baron in Europe and led an exorbitant lifestyle in Manhattan without ever paying for it.
Her lies started unraveling in 2017 after she took a friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, a Vanity Fair photo editor, to Marrakech with her, racked up thousands of hotel fees and then donated her friend the bill for $ 62,000 (£ 44,797).
Sorokin was arrested on six counts of robbery in 2017 for ripping off acquaintances and hotels in New York City. According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, his theft is worth around $ 275,000 (£ 198,699).
In total, she spent 21 months at Rikers Island in New York – the prison that housed other criminals such as Harvey Weinstein, and 20 months at the Albion Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in upstate New State. York.
Prior to his arrest, Sorokin convinced the City National Bank to loan him $ 100,000 (£ 722,54) and forged bank documents to secure another £ 22million loan to fund the Anna Delvey Foundation, a private arts club that she hoped to open.
“I wouldn’t have stopped,” she said of her crimes. “They put me in jail, but that was the only way to stop me.”
She added that she didn’t like being labeled a bogus heiress and that was not what she intended to do when she embarked on her string of frauds.
“I never felt like I managed to pretend to be that heiress,” she said. “There are so many rich people in New York City, so who cares? Nobody cares, ”she said, adding that she would never be able to impress with money in New York City.
She called her crimes shortcuts and shortcuts, but said she never expected to end up in jail for them.
Her lawyers are currently paying her hotel bills with the money she received after making a deal with streaming platform Netflix for $ 320,000 (£ 231,213) – most of which is used to pay off her bank loans , fines and legal fees.
Sorokin was reported to have used the prison phone for shopping before leaving prison, splashing Celine sunglasses, a $ 720 Balenciaga hoodie (£ 520) and Alexander McQueen and Nike sneakers.