Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Fake heiress caught scamming thousands of dollars says 'I'M NOT SORRY'

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Fake heiress caught scamming thousands of dollars says 'I'M NOT SORRY' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The thing is I'm not sorry. Wow.
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Speaker 1: You know when you hear some defendant claim the thing is,
0:21
Speaker 1: I'm not sorry, doesn't that just get under your nerves.
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Speaker 1: That is a direct quote her words, not mine. Wait
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Speaker 1: till you hear who said this. I Nancy Grace, this
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Speaker 1: is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. I'm
0:37
Speaker 1: talking about the fake heiress Anna Saracan. We were talking
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Speaker 1: about this the other day. Anna scan passed herself off
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Speaker 1: in the elite circles of Manhattan as an heiress, an heiress,
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Speaker 1: and what she did well, she just got off trial
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Speaker 1: and she was found guilty. A jury convicts Anna Sarcan,
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Speaker 1: one of her many names, and sentences her. The judge
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Speaker 1: sentences her to four to twelve years behind bars. And
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Speaker 1: as Anna Saurkan prepares to spend the next four to
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Speaker 1: twelve years in prison for swindling literally tens of thousands
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Speaker 1: of dollars from banks ritzy hotels to bank roll a
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Speaker 1: really lavish lifestyle in Manhattan, believe it or not, she
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Speaker 1: gives a jailhouse interview to who The New York Times
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Speaker 1: where she says she would do it all over again.
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Speaker 1: Who is her lawyer? For Pete's sake. I mean, when
1:44
Speaker 1: this thing goes up on a peal, or her sentence
1:47
Speaker 1: is examined to see if she's getting early released and
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Speaker 1: she says she would do it all over again. That
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Speaker 1: is not what a parole board wants to hear. Now,
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Speaker 1: As you know, Anna Sarka, that's she got so many names,
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Speaker 1: I can hardly remember which one is the real name.
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Speaker 1: But the fake German heiress passing herself as herself off
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Speaker 1: as a multi millionaire under the name Anna Delvie. She
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Speaker 1: pretended to be the heir to a sixty million euro
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Speaker 1: fortune and she ripped off about two hundred thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: from Banks Hotels, a private jet company. How did she
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Speaker 1: do it and try to lie her way into getting
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Speaker 1: a twenty five million dollar alone. Well, in the last hours,
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Speaker 1: Anna Saurkin or Anna delvi or whatever her name is,
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Speaker 1: gives a gailhouse interview. Nothing could make me happier than
2:43
Speaker 1: a jail house interview, because in court, defense lawyers try
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Speaker 1: their best for the jury not to find out who
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Speaker 1: the defendant really is, to keep their yaps shut, to
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Speaker 1: have them dressed beautifully. Oh yeah, you know what I
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Speaker 1: loved about this girl? She laid court multiple times, crying
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Speaker 1: in the chambers outside of court because she didn't like
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Speaker 1: her outfit. Yes, she actually had a stylist dressing her
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Speaker 1: in name brands. And when I say name brand, I'm
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Speaker 1: not talking about like Target, I'm talking about Gucci. So
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Speaker 1: many high priced items. I could not believe the judge
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Speaker 1: allowed it. On the other hand, if the judge had
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Speaker 1: forced her end, she would sit there crying about her
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Speaker 1: outfit and you'd have to declare a mistrial for Pete's sake.
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Speaker 1: So the judge did what she had to do. Long
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Speaker 1: story short, miss thing is yacking behind bars and I
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Speaker 1: cannot wait interview with the fake socialite. Aside, how in
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Speaker 1: the hay did we land here? This girl, Anna Sirokan
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Speaker 1: also known as Anna Delvi, somehow manages to con soho
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Speaker 1: Elite out of a quarter of a million dollars. Joining
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Speaker 1: me an all star lineup. Jeff Cortez, former FBI special agent,
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Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, doctor William
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Speaker 1: and July psychologist, and John Limley Crime online dot Com
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter John Limley help me out. This girl shows up.
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Speaker 1: Her skin is so pale, she looks like a ghost
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Speaker 1: as she's got this long brown hair parted usually slightly
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Speaker 1: on the side, big glasses, and the hair hangs down
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Speaker 1: like curtains over her face. You can barely see the eyes,
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Speaker 1: you know, the hair so close down right there. I
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Speaker 1: can't see her face. That makes me suspicious. But who
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Speaker 1: would buy into my dad is a Russian billionaire? Give
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Speaker 1: me your money? Oops, I forgot my credit card. What happened?
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Speaker 1: Let's just start at the beginning. Well, Nancy, apparently a
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Speaker 1: lot of people were just just hungry to buy into
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Speaker 1: this story. If New York City is a city of dreams,
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Speaker 1: which we hear it called all the time, Anna had
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Speaker 1: enough for the entire island. She had longed to be
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Speaker 1: a member of the upper echelon of bantatist and understand something,
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Speaker 1: John Linlane, Crime online investigative reporter, did you just call
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Speaker 1: her giant fraud? Ripping people off tens of thousands of dollars,
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Speaker 1: including one woman that took the stand a working class
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Speaker 1: person who goes on an all expense paid trip with
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Speaker 1: her to Morocco and then she gets stiffed with a
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Speaker 1: sixty five thousand dollar bill. Wait, are you calling that
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Speaker 1: a dream? How can wait? Wait? How dare you dream?
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Speaker 1: Is another person's not? You find yourself with cliches? Don't
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Speaker 1: the American Dream? My rear end? Jeff Cortize, I call
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Speaker 1: it something a lot different than the American Dream. Oh? Absolutely,
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Speaker 1: I mean this was a at least on the front end,
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Speaker 1: a well executed fraud. Over the long term, it didn't
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Speaker 1: It didn't have the legs to remain sustainable though a
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Speaker 1: long term. I mean she managed to pull it off,
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Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, for you know what? Two years? I forgot
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Speaker 1: how long she managed to pull the wool over everybody's eyes,
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Speaker 1: going on ships to Morocco, staying at Oh, I think
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Speaker 1: it's eleven Howard, some ritzy. I don't even know how
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Speaker 1: you find that hotel in New York. It's one of
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Speaker 1: those places. I don't think it is even marked. Only
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Speaker 1: rich people go there. Wendy Patrick, what is what happened
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Speaker 1: to John Limley, the Voice of Reason? He just called
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Speaker 1: us the American Dream? What? Well? I think? I think
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Speaker 1: John Linley, what he was talking about is there are
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Speaker 1: there are some misguided, vulnerable people that really are subjected
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Speaker 1: to social predators like Anna, and you know, some people
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Speaker 1: just are absolutely you guys mentioned the glamor, the glitz.
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Speaker 1: It's like they want to believe and this fake it
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Speaker 1: till you make it lifestyle. You know, nobody even took
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Speaker 1: the time to say, show me the money, show me
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Speaker 1: the fund, show me the corroboration behind your wild stories,
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Speaker 1: because caught up in the moment in an Instagram savvy society,
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Speaker 1: people want to be in the company of people like Anna,
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Speaker 1: and sadly, as a prosecutor, I am just we are
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Speaker 1: just absolutely just terrified of people like this that are
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Speaker 1: able to so easily infiltrate our social network. To doctor Williams, July,
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Speaker 1: psychology did acquit her off, which I was shocked about
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Speaker 1: because this girl actually took the stand Graham larceny for
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Speaker 1: allegedly stealing sixty two thousand dollars from a friend that
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Speaker 1: she said, come along, I'll pay for everything on a
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Speaker 1: chip to Morocco. When you go on a luxurious chip
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Speaker 1: to Morocco, you stay in a five star hotel. They
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Speaker 1: went to Spa treatments that were costing like three hundred
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Speaker 1: dollars a treatment. Yeah, I mean, at worse, Nancy, what
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Speaker 1: you're looking at in cases like this, at worse is
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Speaker 1: a psychopathological level of narcissism at best. What you're looking
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Speaker 1: at as a person who has so much read and
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Speaker 1: desire to please herself that she doesn't care what the
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Speaker 1: consequences are for other people. You were asking earlier, and
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Speaker 1: I just want to address what you were asking earlier
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Speaker 1: about why and how can this sort of thing happen.
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Speaker 1: We're all baffled when we see this, But it's age old.
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Speaker 1: It's it's a tale as old as time. The Charlottean
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Speaker 1: comes in and fools everyone. So there's a part of
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Speaker 1: people that are looking at this who want to believe
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Speaker 1: this because they want to hang out with the person
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Speaker 1: who has this kind of social these types of social credentials,
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Speaker 1: and they want to believe that she's an heiress so
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Speaker 1: that they can be with her. And people are blaming
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Speaker 1: social media. It's not the fault of social media. Social
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Speaker 1: media is just a facilitator to the neediness of other
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Speaker 1: people who want to believe in acceptance. Why are you
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Speaker 1: piling on everybody on the panel except Cortez, thank goodness,
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Speaker 1: as keeps talking about the Instagram and society. You know what,
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Speaker 1: Instagram didn't have a dang thing to do with this.
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Speaker 1: It was all miss thing. Take a listen to friend
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Speaker 1: Rachel william speaking to Deborah Roberts Nightline. She just was
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Speaker 1: very impulsive and free spirited and charming. I really liked her.
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Speaker 1: Anna Delvie made an impression on everyone she met. Were
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Speaker 1: you sort of seduced by her in her behavior? In
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Speaker 1: some ways? I'd say yes, I was captivated by it.
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Speaker 1: I was sort of fascinated by her willingness to just
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Speaker 1: challenge boundaries. Claiming to be a German heiress with a
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Speaker 1: sixty seven million dollar trust bond. She talked her way
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Speaker 1: into exclusive New York parties and nightclubs, which is how
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Speaker 1: she met Rachel Williams in twenty sixteen, then a twenty
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Speaker 1: eight year old photo editor at Vanity Fair magazine. In
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Speaker 1: my late twenties, it was a period of major transition
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Speaker 1: for me and my friends. A lot of them were
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Speaker 1: getting married or having babies or leaving the city, and
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Speaker 1: I was so glad to have this person who was
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Speaker 1: available and seemed really excited to be my friend. Not pictious,
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Speaker 1: The pair soon became inseparable, living the glamorous life of
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Speaker 1: two young women in Manhattan. Why do you think she
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Speaker 1: was able to sort of walk into rooms and sort
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Speaker 1: of do what she wanted to some degree, probably because
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Speaker 1: she's a young white female. Also, a lot of it
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Speaker 1: had to do with her specific term. She seemed good.
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Speaker 1: Wild Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back everybody on
10:36
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
10:39
Speaker 1: with us. We're talking about the fake heiress Anasaurican. You know,
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Speaker 1: a lot of people will puff themselves up, and you know,
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Speaker 1: it reminds me of a little boy at the Twins
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Speaker 1: school and John David always comes home, says Mom. He
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Speaker 1: brags all the time that he has the newest iPhone,
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Speaker 1: that he has this, that he has that. And I said,
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Speaker 1: John David, that's just to make himself feel batter about himself.
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Speaker 1: He must feel bad about himself if he has to
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Speaker 1: lie or brag about what he owns or what his
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Speaker 1: parents own, and you should feel bad for him. Why.
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine what possessed this woman to do what
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Speaker 1: she did, builking Banks and Friends out of a quarter
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Speaker 1: of a million dollars. But the New York Times manages
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Speaker 1: to snag an interview with her. And I was reading
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Speaker 1: the article and it says nothing about interviewing the fake
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Speaker 1: heiress Anna Sorkin was normal. Apparently, the fake heiress spoke
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Speaker 1: quickly excitedly as she talked about her time faking everyone
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Speaker 1: out as Anna Delvey, the books she is now writing,
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Speaker 1: and the fact that she made the right decision to
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Speaker 1: go to trial even though she was sentenced to Moore
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Speaker 1: as she was offered on an original plea deal. She
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Speaker 1: went on to reveal that she did not regret anything
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Speaker 1: that she did a fake German heiress. How did she
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Speaker 1: manage to do it? I mean, if I even try
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Speaker 1: to write a check at the grocery store, I have
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Speaker 1: to show ID and credit cards. How did she built
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Speaker 1: banks and friends out of two hundred nearly a quarter
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Speaker 1: of a million dollars? Well, I know twelve people that
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Speaker 1: could see through her fake act the jury. She not
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Speaker 1: only assumed different an identity for herself, but she also
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Speaker 1: created a whole team of imaginary assistance, an assistant, an accountant,
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Speaker 1: a manager Limley, is this true? All of her imaginary
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Speaker 1: assistance well, and some were not so imaginary. She even
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Speaker 1: had the concierge at a hotel essentially on her staff.
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Speaker 1: At her beck and call. She was able to convince
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Speaker 1: people of not only her wealth, but all of her
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Speaker 1: aspirations her dreams. She really wanted to build this members
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Speaker 1: only arts club on Park Avenue South and was even
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Speaker 1: working to get the financing for it, and was not
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Speaker 1: too far, John Lanley, she lied to a bank using
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Speaker 1: phony records she was not working to get funding. Listen
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Speaker 1: to this. Anna, who interned at a trendy French magazine,
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Speaker 1: reportedly managed to scam extended stays in swanky Manhattan hotels,
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Speaker 1: dinner at high end restaurants, and flights on chartered jets
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Speaker 1: to finance her lavish lifestyle and keep the grift going.
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Speaker 1: She allegedly built banks out of thousands in cash. And
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Speaker 1: that's not all. The fake heiress reportedly fleeced her friend
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Speaker 1: out of sixty two thousand dollars for a world class
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Speaker 1: trip to Morocco. But Anna went too far when she
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Speaker 1: attempted to take out a loan for twenty two million
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Speaker 1: dollars to finance a visual art center she called the
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Speaker 1: Anna Delvi Foundation. In all, Anna reportedly scanned a total
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Speaker 1: of two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars and his
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Speaker 1: double life began to crumble as hotels went after her
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Speaker 1: unpaid debts and banks began to investigate her alleged assets. Wow,
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Speaker 1: that's Jesse Palmer over at Daily Mail TV. Wow. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so friends and acquaintances Say Sirokan spent years playing the
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Speaker 1: part of an art obsessed German heiress. Sometimes she'd be Russian,
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Speaker 1: sometimes she'd be German. She had an accent to go
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Speaker 1: with it, rubbing shoulders with a fashion elite at Paris
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Speaker 1: Fashion Week. Frequently spotted in London night spots. Then those
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Speaker 1: who knew her saw her at a party in Berlin.
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Speaker 1: She told everybody she had just flown in on a
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Speaker 1: price of a jet. How did she pull it off?
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Speaker 1: Scamming nearly three hundred thousand dollars. It was only when
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Speaker 1: these ritzy hotels in New York went after her to
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Speaker 1: pay her bills that the whole thing fell apart. But
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Speaker 1: what really amazed me. You know, I don't know if
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Speaker 1: you do this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author
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Speaker 1: of red Flags on Amazon. Wendy, under the constitution, you
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Speaker 1: can't force a defendant into court in handcuffs or leg
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Speaker 1: irons or waist shackle. You can't force them to come
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Speaker 1: in in inmate jumpsuit, prison blues or orange or stripes,
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Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. But I would always keep
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Speaker 1: a jacket and pants and a couple of different sizes
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Speaker 1: in my office. So when a defendant would show up
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Speaker 1: on Monday morning trial calendar and say, oh, yeah, I
15:54
Speaker 1: want to go to trial, but I don't have a suit,
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Speaker 1: I go, oh, I do have a suit for you.
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Speaker 1: And of course I never had it claimed ever in
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Speaker 1: the ten years that I prosecuted, so they would just
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Speaker 1: have to wear the suit. But she was more concerned
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Speaker 1: about what she wore to court every day. She had
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Speaker 1: She actually had a personal dresser dialist dressing her for court, Wendy.
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Speaker 1: It's this entire mentality of I don't want to say
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Speaker 1: just not getting it. That would be too kind. It's
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Speaker 1: a complete underappreciation, or I should say non appreciation for
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Speaker 1: the fact that the rest of us work for a living.
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Speaker 1: Her family works for a living. There is so much
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Speaker 1: more to life than clothes and appearances an image. You know.
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Speaker 1: One of the things that distinguishes this case is the
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Speaker 1: fact that this over emphasis on image, on money, on
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Speaker 1: glamour sounds like it absolutely overrode every ounce of judgment
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Speaker 1: that she had and to take that into the courtroom
16:49
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, Nancy is probably a little bit beyond
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Speaker 1: the pailful. Listen to our friends and Inside Edition. This
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Speaker 1: is Diane McInerney. This woman may look like she has
16:57
Speaker 1: dressed for a fascist show, and her designer does. The
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Speaker 1: wanna be socialite is actually on trial for swindling hundreds
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Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting people. She was so
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Speaker 1: concerned about how she looked in court she actually hired
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Speaker 1: a stylist. Is she in a courtroom or at a
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Speaker 1: red carpet event. Anna Saurkin is accused of posing as
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Speaker 1: an heiress to live an extravagant lifestyle, but it's what
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Speaker 1: she's wearing to trial that is making headlines. The twenty
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Speaker 1: seven year old defendant showed up wearing a form fitting
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Speaker 1: black dress with a plunging neckline and choker necklace. It's
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Speaker 1: a look that could backfire a worn stylist, Don Karen.
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Speaker 1: Black dress definitely a no no. A hyper sexualize her.
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Speaker 1: It makes her appear to be like a seductress. The
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Speaker 1: choker kind of shows to me that she's trying to
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Speaker 1: be overtly sexy. The more sexy she appears to be,
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Speaker 1: it hurts her Sourkin is so obsessed with her clothes
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Speaker 1: she refused to enter the courtroom because the outfit she
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Speaker 1: was given to wear was not up to her standards.
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Speaker 1: The angry judge told her this is unacceptable and inappropriate.
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Speaker 1: This is not a fashion show. Sorkin's lawyer, Todd Spodek,
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Speaker 1: says accounts of his client delaying the trial because of
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Speaker 1: fashion are being blown out of proportion. It's not that
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Speaker 1: she didn't want to come out only because of the clothes.
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Speaker 1: She's going through a major criminal trial that's publicized every day.
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Speaker 1: It's emotional, and it's her life. Don't cry too much
18:21
Speaker 1: for Annasarakin because apparently there's a bidding war going on
18:26
Speaker 1: for her story. I guess it's going to end up
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Speaker 1: on Netflix or HBO or maybe even on the big screen, Jackie,
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Speaker 1: What do you know? Ancy? Netflix did win the rights
18:35
Speaker 1: to that story, and Hollywood executive Shanda Rhimes secured the deal. Reportedly,
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Speaker 1: the streaming giant agreed to pay one hundred thousand dollars
18:43
Speaker 1: for the story, plus seven thousand, five hundred dollars royalty
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Speaker 1: and fifteen thousand dollars per episode consulting fee. Now Sorkin
18:52
Speaker 1: received thirty thousand of that upfront, but it went to
18:55
Speaker 1: her lawyer for fees. Now the rest of the money
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Speaker 1: is being kept in s by the State Attorney General's office,
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Speaker 1: which is trying to invoke a Son of Sam law.
19:05
Speaker 1: That's the name for any law that seeks to prevent
19:08
Speaker 1: criminals from profiting off their crimes. It's named after Son
19:12
Speaker 1: of Sam killer David Berkowitz, the serial killer who was
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Speaker 1: prevented in nineteen seventy seven from selling the TV or
19:19
Speaker 1: film rights to his murder Rampage Crime Stories with Nancy
19:39
Speaker 1: Grace Welcome Back. For years, Anna Sarkin dreamed about being
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Speaker 1: someone else, a Russian immigrant with dreams of becoming a
19:51
Speaker 1: member of Manhattan's elite society. Sarkin hopped around Germany in
19:58
Speaker 1: Paris before finally coming to New York. But she came
20:01
Speaker 1: there with a brand new identity, a fake identity of
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Speaker 1: a wealthy German heiress with a trust fund worth sixty
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Speaker 1: million euros. She came up with a new name, Anna Delvi,
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Speaker 1: and lived under the fake name as she built exclusive hotels,
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Speaker 1: bank personnel restaurant, even a private jet company out of
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Speaker 1: nearly a quarter million dollars. How did she do it?
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Speaker 1: Then she launches into a month long trial, a jury trial,
20:33
Speaker 1: rejecting a pretty lenient plea deal offered to her. The
20:38
Speaker 1: trial got more and more bizarre. There were the challenges
20:43
Speaker 1: of styling the inmate in court. She appeared to still
20:49
Speaker 1: be the character of Anna Delvi. She would be decked
20:54
Speaker 1: out in designer clothes, and I found out the name
20:56
Speaker 1: of the stylist, Anastasia Walker out. At the very beginning,
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Speaker 1: she was wearing revealing outfits, but toned that down as
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Speaker 1: the trial went on. One witness that really stood out
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Speaker 1: in my mind was a close friend of Anna Saurkans
21:14
Speaker 1: who testified extensively about the luxury lifestyle. The two of
21:19
Speaker 1: them lived very expensive dinners, sauna treatments, personal trainers, all
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Speaker 1: paid for by Anna Saurkan. Then they decided to take
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Speaker 1: a dream trip to Marrakesh. There she ended up sticking
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Speaker 1: the friend with the bill to the tune of around
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Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollars. How do you feel about Annasarekan today?
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Speaker 1: I believe she's a sociopath. Rachel's now speaking on camera
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Speaker 1: for the first time about how she says her former
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Speaker 1: friend betrayed her, a tale she recounts in her new
21:52
Speaker 1: book My friend Anna The True story of a fake
21:56
Speaker 1: eras I don't actually feel a lot of anger. Mostly
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Speaker 1: I just feel like I would like to never cross
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Speaker 1: paths with her again. In the spring of twenty seventeen,
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Speaker 1: Rachel tells us Anna offered an all expensive pay trip
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Speaker 1: to Marrakesh in a lavish seventy five hundred dollars a
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Speaker 1: night villa. It was shockingly opulent. Your eyes must have
22:16
Speaker 1: been popping out of your Absolutely in New York. We
22:19
Speaker 1: did these things a it Racco. That's when I was
22:21
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, like I thought I understood your world,
22:24
Speaker 1: but actually this is ridiculous. It was, I mean, it
22:28
Speaker 1: was amazing until it wasn't. That's because Rachel says, suddenly
22:33
Speaker 1: Anna's credit cards mysteriously weren't working. When it was time
22:37
Speaker 1: to settle up with the hotel, the managers began to
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Speaker 1: pull Anna aside, and it sort of slowly escalating that
22:44
Speaker 1: there's some tension between Anna and the hotel. After a
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Speaker 1: few days of hounding Anna, the hotel had had enough.
22:50
Speaker 1: The men just stood in our villa and they were
22:53
Speaker 1: waiting for her to fix it. And they want payment, Yes,
22:56
Speaker 1: they want a credit card that works right there, right now.
22:59
Speaker 1: Like they're done. Wait, Rachel tells us she's fearful of
23:02
Speaker 1: being stranded in a foreign country, so she offers her
23:05
Speaker 1: credit cards as a temporary backup, even though she can't
23:08
Speaker 1: afford it. I leave early on Friday morning. When I land,
23:13
Speaker 1: I get a text message that the whole bill is
23:15
Speaker 1: being charged to my cards. How much? Sixty two thousand dollars?
23:19
Speaker 1: Sixty two thousand dollars? How did you even wrap your
23:22
Speaker 1: mind fround that? It was such a complex, paralyzing moment
23:28
Speaker 1: for me. She owed me more money than I made
23:30
Speaker 1: any year back in New York. Anna doesn't send Rachel
23:34
Speaker 1: the money, instead making excuse after excuse, texting, I will
23:38
Speaker 1: get it sorted, so you have it this week, Rachel replying,
23:42
Speaker 1: I'm in serious trouble. Anna. What friend leaves another person
23:45
Speaker 1: in this situation for this long? What is going on
23:48
Speaker 1: for you internally? I am late with my rent and
23:51
Speaker 1: late with my credit card payments. I'm in a lot
23:54
Speaker 1: of trouble. You know. That's the kind of trip people
23:58
Speaker 1: plan their whole lines, and Anna Sarkan managed to do it,
24:02
Speaker 1: a sixty thousand dollars trip to Morocco, spending time in
24:07
Speaker 1: a private villa a steam room, a private pool, shopping
24:14
Speaker 1: spending nearly fifteen hundred dollars on Moroccan style dresses because
24:22
Speaker 1: Anna only had her New York Black clothing with her.
24:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it just goes on and on. Many influential
24:32
Speaker 1: people conned by Sarkan. We're never asked to take the
24:35
Speaker 1: stand during the trial. It goes on and on in
24:40
Speaker 1: the courtroom, but ultimately the jury saw through the whole thing.
24:43
Speaker 1: The charade goes on as she gives an interview to
24:46
Speaker 1: a New York Times reporter. But I want to focus
24:49
Speaker 1: on the trial and how she ends up with a
24:51
Speaker 1: sentence of four to twelve years behind bars. There was
24:54
Speaker 1: one story that came out at trial how she hired
24:59
Speaker 1: a PR firm to organized her birthday party in Soho.
25:03
Speaker 1: It emerged she never paid the bill. During her stay
25:07
Speaker 1: at eleven Howard, she struck up a friend there in
25:12
Speaker 1: addition to the concierge's too, and ask for the recommendations
25:16
Speaker 1: for the very Vetti Vetti best food in Soho. We
25:21
Speaker 1: also learned that on one occasion she invited friends to
25:25
Speaker 1: dinner at Soho sent and bro and the friend ended
25:30
Speaker 1: up paying a whopper massive bill when Sorokan's twelve credit
25:35
Speaker 1: cards were all declined, but Sorokan paid her back triple
25:41
Speaker 1: the amount the following day in cash. We also learned
25:46
Speaker 1: that she would go to unique treatments like infrared saunas
25:53
Speaker 1: in the East Village, go out to dinner after celebrity
25:59
Speaker 1: training session with Casey Duke, which Sarakin also paid for
26:04
Speaker 1: John Limley. How did she get money from one bank
26:08
Speaker 1: to get a loan from another bank? How did that works?
26:11
Speaker 1: It's a very interesting line to follow. How she did this.
26:16
Speaker 1: She would go to a bank and ask for a
26:21
Speaker 1: certain line of credit based on a lot of times
26:25
Speaker 1: just a promise of the fact that she had millions
26:29
Speaker 1: overseas that she could repay the loan, and she would
26:33
Speaker 1: go from one bank with that money to another bank
26:39
Speaker 1: and get an even larger In fact, here's an example.
26:44
Speaker 1: She talked to an to an executive with City National
26:48
Speaker 1: Bank into giving her a line of credit on her
26:51
Speaker 1: account for one hundred thousand dollars, promising to repay it
26:55
Speaker 1: with a wire transfer from a European account. She used
27:00
Speaker 1: that money in a failed attempt to secure a twenty
27:03
Speaker 1: five million dollar loan from Fortress Investment Group and one
27:09
Speaker 1: of the managing directors at Fortress has said that she
27:13
Speaker 1: ran into problems providing details about the origin of her wealth.
27:18
Speaker 1: Someone actually thought to ask about that. You know, her
27:20
Speaker 1: lies became more and more spectacular, Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor.
27:24
Speaker 1: In fact, she even managed to charter a private plane
27:28
Speaker 1: on one occasion with absolutely zero money. Wendy, how do
27:33
Speaker 1: you do that? Yeah. The level of sophistication Nancy, as
27:35
Speaker 1: John was explaining, and as we know now looking back,
27:39
Speaker 1: was absolutely stunning. It was almost as if she was
27:42
Speaker 1: daring authorities to catch her in this escalating scheme of sophistication.
27:46
Speaker 1: And you know, the answer to how you do that
27:48
Speaker 1: is the same way we commit we see people committing
27:51
Speaker 1: other crimes. Is sometimes people are so trusting because image matters.
27:55
Speaker 1: You know, this is something I talk about in my book.
27:57
Speaker 1: We tend to attribute all these positive of qualities to
28:00
Speaker 1: somebody who comes across as believable, whether they're pretty, or
28:04
Speaker 1: that we like what they say, or we're enamored with
28:06
Speaker 1: their acts and or their clothes. All the types of
28:09
Speaker 1: things that Anna used to get ahead can fool other
28:11
Speaker 1: people into letting them acquire the kind of wealth and
28:15
Speaker 1: as you point out tangible benefits that this young lady did.
28:31
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back, I Nancy Grace.
28:37
Speaker 1: This is crime stories. We're talking about Anna Saurkan, the
28:41
Speaker 1: fake German heiress that managed to build Manhattan socializes out
28:46
Speaker 1: of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now she gives a
28:49
Speaker 1: jailhouse interview talk about narcissism. But she did manage to
28:54
Speaker 1: get a leading publication. The New York Times at her
28:58
Speaker 1: beck and call to interview her. What is it about
29:02
Speaker 1: Anna Sarkan aka Anna Delvi that transfixed so many people
29:08
Speaker 1: who were willing to open their homes and their wallets
29:11
Speaker 1: to her. Take a Listen to friend Rachel Williams speaking
29:14
Speaker 1: to Deborah Roberts Nightline. Rachel's convinced that she's been duped
29:19
Speaker 1: and goes to authorities. In the summer of twenty seventeen,
29:22
Speaker 1: police arrest Anna Sorkin in Malibu, California. If she did
29:26
Speaker 1: this to me and I was her friend, she would
29:28
Speaker 1: do it to anybody, and I just wanted to protect
29:31
Speaker 1: other people. Anna is charged with grand larceny, attempted grand larceny,
29:37
Speaker 1: and theft of services. During the trial, prosecutors arguing she
29:41
Speaker 1: stole more than a quarter of a million dollars from banks,
29:44
Speaker 1: who Tells and a private jet operator to fund a
29:47
Speaker 1: lavish lifestyle. Anna's attorney insisting Rachel is not a victim.
29:53
Speaker 1: I don't believe a criminal act occurred. She made a
29:56
Speaker 1: voluntary choice to put this debt on her credit card.
29:58
Speaker 1: She didn't have to. Rachel testified facing her former friend
30:02
Speaker 1: in court. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I
30:05
Speaker 1: did look at her. She was smirking at me. Did
30:07
Speaker 1: it unnerve you no? Shockingly, I thought it would, But
30:10
Speaker 1: I think understanding her for who she was, it caused
30:14
Speaker 1: her to lose her power and she became no longer
30:17
Speaker 1: scary to me. In May, twenty eight year old Annasaurkin
30:23
Speaker 1: was convicted of eight charges against her, including grant larceny,
30:27
Speaker 1: but found not guilty of defrauding Rachel. Some of the
30:31
Speaker 1: jurors didn't feel sympathetic for your situation with Anna. How
30:36
Speaker 1: did that feel for you? Oh? That was devastating. To
30:39
Speaker 1: have shared so publicly something that was so deeply personal
30:44
Speaker 1: and painful for me was extremely hard. And then to
30:47
Speaker 1: have that come out as the takeaway was extremely upsetting.
30:52
Speaker 1: Anna was sentenced to four to twelve years in prison
30:55
Speaker 1: and ordered to pay nearly two hundred thousand dollars in restitution.
30:59
Speaker 1: As for that huge which credit card bill? Did you
31:01
Speaker 1: have to pay that money? Ultimately think, thank goodness American
31:06
Speaker 1: Express did protect me from the hotel charge, which was
31:10
Speaker 1: the bulk of the expenses. Another aspect to this, John Lumley,
31:14
Speaker 1: is I remember one day when John David came running
31:18
Speaker 1: home and so and So's mom is so cool. She
31:23
Speaker 1: works for Chick fil A and she gets free T
31:27
Speaker 1: shirts and she gets this, and she gets that. I
31:29
Speaker 1: think the lady who's very lovely was in marketing or
31:33
Speaker 1: PR and would bring home, you know, like a T
31:37
Speaker 1: shirt or a mookau or whatever they had. And I
31:41
Speaker 1: thought briefly of creating a different persona to try to
31:46
Speaker 1: impress John David's friends, who were then four years old. Okay,
31:51
Speaker 1: but I just decided no, I'm just gonna stick with
31:54
Speaker 1: the truth, you know, and let the chips fall where
31:56
Speaker 1: they may. But John Lomley, I mean that would hurt
32:00
Speaker 1: me if I found out the twins were lying about
32:04
Speaker 1: their mom and dad, that what we are isn't good
32:09
Speaker 1: enough to fit in to their self image they're projecting
32:13
Speaker 1: that would really hurt my feelers. And that's exactly the
32:16
Speaker 1: way her parents felt about the whole thing. They actually
32:19
Speaker 1: did helped fund her through college and as she was
32:23
Speaker 1: getting out on her own, but there was never any
32:26
Speaker 1: sort of trust fund. She moved to Germany in two
32:30
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, and after she dropped out of college,
32:34
Speaker 1: she interned in public relations before then moving to Paris
32:38
Speaker 1: and became an intern at Purple Magazine. Once she arrived
32:42
Speaker 1: in New York City, she just somehow managed to be
32:45
Speaker 1: in all the sort of right places. And she was
32:48
Speaker 1: this German heiress, according to her, with a father that
32:53
Speaker 1: you would think with Wait a minute, I thought she
32:56
Speaker 1: was supposed to be a Russian heiress. Well, no, she
33:00
Speaker 1: was from Russia, but she told people she was a
33:03
Speaker 1: German heiress. What's really funny, though, is that her German,
33:06
Speaker 1: according to a lot of people, was terrible. H I
33:10
Speaker 1: want you to take a listen to what the defense
33:12
Speaker 1: claims in closing arguments. She had to fake it until
33:15
Speaker 1: she could make it. Those words from the defendant's own attorney,
33:18
Speaker 1: who claims she never intended to commit a crime, but
33:21
Speaker 1: prosecutors call her fraud and a liar who would do
33:23
Speaker 1: almost anything to prolong her life of luxury. This morning
33:29
Speaker 1: the fate of an alleged scam artist, the style savvy defendant,
33:32
Speaker 1: even turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress.
33:36
Speaker 1: She called herself Anna Delvi, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors
33:40
Speaker 1: say was pretending to be a high flying German heiress
33:43
Speaker 1: living a fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
33:50
Speaker 1: That is import, prosecutors say, the twenty eight year old,
34:00
Speaker 1: whose real name is Anna Sorkin, stole two hundred and
34:03
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars from banks, hotels, and friends, all
34:07
Speaker 1: part of an elaborate scheme to keep up her illusion
34:10
Speaker 1: of grander. Prosecutors also alleged Sorkin tried securing a twenty
34:14
Speaker 1: two million dollar loan to operate a private club, claims
34:18
Speaker 1: her lawyer denies. I do not believe she had the
34:21
Speaker 1: intent to ever commit a crime. Whether she owes people money,
34:24
Speaker 1: that's effect of life, that's the reality of doing business
34:27
Speaker 1: in New York. Now facing charges of grand larceny and theft,
34:30
Speaker 1: she could spend up to fifteen years in prison if convicted,
34:34
Speaker 1: but officials say even if acquitted, she will be deported
34:37
Speaker 1: to Germany. Sorkin's attorney says she got in over her
34:40
Speaker 1: head but was just buying time until she could pay
34:43
Speaker 1: everyone back. You're hearing our buddy Johnson at GMA, at
34:46
Speaker 1: ABC pay everybody back. I saw no signs of paying
34:50
Speaker 1: everybody back and calling this doing business. That's certainly putting
34:55
Speaker 1: perfume on the pig. Now you know there's a problem.
34:58
Speaker 1: Wendy Patcheck, California prosecut an author of red flags. When
35:01
Speaker 1: the defense to theft and fraud is fake it till
35:06
Speaker 1: you make it, okay, I would not say that that's
35:10
Speaker 1: a valid defense and a fraud case you're admitting you're
35:13
Speaker 1: faking it. It's probably not a good theme for the
35:16
Speaker 1: defense one. I'm sure they're rethinking right about now. You
35:19
Speaker 1: don't want to that's kind of playing right into the
35:22
Speaker 1: prosecutor's case. Now. What they probably were trying to do,
35:26
Speaker 1: interestingly in trial and Nancy, you and I have both
35:27
Speaker 1: seen this is really kind of painting this vulnerability picture
35:31
Speaker 1: of the defendant to try to make somebody feel sorry
35:33
Speaker 1: for her, that she was caught up in this false lifestyle,
35:36
Speaker 1: felt she had to pretend she was somebody she wasn't
35:38
Speaker 1: who can't relate to that. There's a little bit of
35:40
Speaker 1: Anna and all of us, you know, some of the
35:42
Speaker 1: themes we saw. I want to isolate what you just said.
35:46
Speaker 1: The defense argued at trial as if Anna Sirokan aka
35:51
Speaker 1: Anna Delphi was some type of a renegade and a rebel,
35:57
Speaker 1: someone who was, you know, making her own path in
36:01
Speaker 1: the world creatively. B s. Don't tell me there's a
36:04
Speaker 1: little bit of Anna Sroken in me, because that was
36:07
Speaker 1: their defense. There's a little bit of Anna and all
36:09
Speaker 1: of us. No, because she is a fraud, a thief,
36:15
Speaker 1: and she ripped people off and they're never gonna get repaid. Wendy, right,
36:19
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying that. Well, that's probably why she
36:21
Speaker 1: was convicted, because these defenses are just not realistic to jurors,
36:25
Speaker 1: to hard working jurors that go on camping trips like
36:28
Speaker 1: you did, and Jess cannot relate to the fact that
36:32
Speaker 1: we are anything like this picture of Anna. Nonetheless, we
36:36
Speaker 1: have seen this defense timing again and thankfully it is
36:39
Speaker 1: not successful. You know. And speaking of my little camping trip,
36:43
Speaker 1: God willing I get to go on another one. Take
36:45
Speaker 1: a listen, to this. The courtroom drama played out late
36:49
Speaker 1: into the evening. At one point the jury appeared deadlock,
36:52
Speaker 1: the defense asking for a mistrial, but then the verdict,
36:55
Speaker 1: jurors agreeing with the prosecution that Anna Saurakin builds her
36:58
Speaker 1: fairy tale life foundation of theft and lies. Overnight, a
37:03
Speaker 1: New York City jury finding socialite Annasrikin, a so called
37:07
Speaker 1: SOHO grifter, guilty on eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted
37:12
Speaker 1: grand larceny, and theft of services. Prosecutors arguing the twenty
37:16
Speaker 1: eight year old stole a quarter of a million dollars
37:19
Speaker 1: from banks, hotels, and friends to fund a lavish lifestyle.
37:23
Speaker 1: The jurors obviously believed our point of view and followed
37:26
Speaker 1: our logic and acquitted her to the top charge. I'm
37:28
Speaker 1: sad and that she was convicted of some of the
37:30
Speaker 1: other charges. Prosecutors say the Russian born Sorokin, who called
37:34
Speaker 1: herself Anna Delvi, was pretending to be a high flying
37:37
Speaker 1: German heiress living a life of glamor among Manhattan's elite.
37:41
Speaker 1: Authorities say she even forged financial documents hoping to get
37:45
Speaker 1: a twenty two million dollar loan to open a private
37:48
Speaker 1: club in the Big Apple. While she was turned down,
37:50
Speaker 1: she did convince one bank to loan her one hundred
37:53
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which she never paid back or lawyer saying
37:56
Speaker 1: she meant to but had gotten in over her head
37:59
Speaker 1: and was buying time. Well, I guarantee you she's not
38:02
Speaker 1: getting breakfast in bad fresh watermelon and rose rikers. Nancy
38:08
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Story, signing off Goodbye friend,