Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Fake "Heiress" throws courtroom tantrum,demands designer duds, fraudster?

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Fake "Heiress" throws courtroom tantrum,demands designer duds, fraudster? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. By twenty sixteen, Anna Delvi
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: was a regular in the NYC social scene, frequenting many
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: popular downtown restaurants, bars, and clubs. With an extravagant lifestyle
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and a seemingly endless supply of money. Delvi was an
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: enigma that was made for the age of Instagram, always
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: at the right place with the right people, living her
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: best life, but with no apparent cause for her fame.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Her circle of acquaintances was fed various stories as to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: how she accumulated her vast wealth. Her father was a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Russian billionaire, a Russian diplomat, an oil tycoon, a Russian
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: antiques collector, or, a solar energy capitalist. While many parts
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of Delve's story were fluid, some things were consistent. Delvey
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: made no effort to hide her internship at the Paris
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: magazine Purple, and made it very clear that her dream
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: was to open a soho house for art and quote upset.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Fake German heiress Anna Sarroken vows to appeal her conviction.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: She's found guilty of grand larceny after a life of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: fake ripping people off to nearly a quarter of a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: million dollars that we know of who would believe a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Russian heiress and for over thousands of dollars, and in
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: court she was more upset about her designer clothing wardrobe
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: than she was about being found guilty. Now that's unusual.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime Stories. This girl, Anna
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Sirokan also known as Anna Delvi, somehow manages to con
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: soho Elite out of a quarter of a million dollars.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Joining me an all star lineup. Jeff Cortez, a former
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: FBI special agent, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: doctor William and July psychologist, and John Linley, Crime online
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter John Limley help me out. This girl
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: shows up. Her skin is so pale, she looks like
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a ghost. And she's got this long brown hair parted
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: usually slightly on the side, big glasses, and the hair
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: hangs down like curtains over her face. You can barely
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: see the eyes, you know, the hair so close down
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: right there. I can't see her face. That makes me suspicious.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But who would buy into my dad is a Russian billionaire?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Give me your money? Oops, I forgot my credit card.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: What happened? Let's just start at the beginning, Well, Nancy,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: apparently a lot of people were just just hungry to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: buy into this story. If New York City is a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: city of dreams, which we hear it called all the time,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Anna had enough for the entire island. She had longed
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to be a member of the upper echelon of Manhattansis
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and understand something, John Limley, Crime Online investigation reporter, did
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you just call her giant fraud? Ripping people off tens
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars, including one woman that took the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: stand a working class person who goes on an all
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: expense pay trip with her to Morocco and then she
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: gets stiffed with a sixty five thousand dollar bill. Wait
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: are you calling that a dream? How go? Wait? Wait?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: How dare you dream? Is another person's not? You find
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: yourself with cliches. Don't the American dream my rear end?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Jeff Corteze, I call it something a lot different than
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the American dream. Oh absolutely, I mean this was a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: at least on the front end, a well executed fraud.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Over the long term, it didn't. It didn't have the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: legs to remain sustainable that a long term. I mean
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: she managed to pull it off. Wendy Patrick, for you
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: know what, two years? I forgot how long she managed
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to pull the wool over everybody's eyes, going on trips
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to Morocco, staying at oh I think it's eleven Howard,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: some ritzy. I don't even know how you find that
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: hotel in New York. It's one of those places I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: don't think is even marked. Only rich people go there.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick. Is what happened to John Limley, the Voice
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of Reason. He just called us the American Dream? What well?
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I think, I think John Linley, what he was talking
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: about is there are there are some misguided, vulnerable people
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: that really are subjected to social predators like Anna, and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: you know, some people just are absolutely you guys mentioned
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  Speaker 1: the glamour, the glitz. It's like they want to believe
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and this fake it till you make it lifestyle. You know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: nobody even took the time to say, show me the money,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: show me the fund, show me the corroboration behind your
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: wild stories, because caught up in the moment in an
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: instagram savvy society, people want to be in the company
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of people like Anna, and sadly, as a prosecutor, I
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: am just we are just absolutely just terrified of people
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: like this that are able to so easily infiltrate our
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: social network. Being to doctor Williams July, psychologist, author of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a Dark and he did a quit her off, which
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  Speaker 1: I was shocked about, because this girl actually took the
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  Speaker 1: stand grand larceny for allegedly stealing sixty two thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: from a friend that she said, come along, I'll pay
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  Speaker 1: for everything on a trip to Morocco. Okay, I think
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: they actually punished the friend because when you go on
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a luxurious trip to Morocco, you stay in a five
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: star hotel. They went to spot treatments that were costing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: like three hundred dollars a treatment. You know what, I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: take Lucy to let her get her nails done, and
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I say, oh no, no, Mommy doesn't want to get
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  Speaker 1: her nails done. I am not paying anybody fifty dollars
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to cut my nails. I can do that. I'm okay
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: with that. Okay. They were spending three hundred dollars for
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a forty minute treatment, whatever that treatment may be, by
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: laying in mud, getting their nails whatever. Three hundred I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: think they the jury punished that friend for going along
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: with the excess, doctor July, Yeah, I mean at worse, Nancy,
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  Speaker 1: what you're looking at in cases like this, at worse
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  Speaker 1: is a psychopathological level of narcissism at best. What you're
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  Speaker 1: looking at as a person who has so much greed
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  Speaker 1: and desire to please herself that she doesn't care what
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  Speaker 1: the consequences are for other people. You were asking earlier,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and I just want to address what you were asking
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: earlier about why and how can this sort of thing happen.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: We're all baffled when we see this, But it's age old.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: It's it's a tale as old as time. The Charlotte
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: than comes in and fools everyone. So there's a part
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  Speaker 1: of people that are looking at this who want to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: believe this because they want to hang out with the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: person who has this kind of social these types of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: social credentials, and they want to believe that she's an
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  Speaker 1: heiress so that they can be with. And people are
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: blaming social media. It's not the fault of social media.
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  Speaker 1: Social media is just a facilitator to the neediness of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: other people who want to believe in accept Why are
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you piling on everybody on the panel except Cortez thank goodness.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: As keeps talking about the Instagram and society. You know what,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Instagram didn't have a dang thing to do with this.
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  Speaker 1: It was all miss thing Anna Sarokan slash Anna w npsps.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I just found out her parents have disowned her. They
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: are hard working middle class people that she borrowed a
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  Speaker 1: ton of money borrowed, i e. Stole a ton of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: money from them as well. Hey, but she didn't just
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: create a different identity. Her real name is not annas
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to a Russian billionaire, an oil tycoon, or a solar
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: energy magnate. Her parents, I think the dad drives a truck,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and I know it. That's like my dad, as you know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: worked on the railroad. My mom started as a bank teller.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: My grandfather father drove an ice truck and a school bus,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: anything to put the food on the table. But she
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: not only assumed different and identity for herself, but she
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: also created a whole team of imaginary assistance, an assistant,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: an accountant, a manager. Limley, is this true? All of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: her imaginary assistance well, and some were not so imaginary.
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  Speaker 1: She even had the concierge at a hotel essentially on
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: her staff. At her beck and call. She was able
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  Speaker 1: to convince people of not only her wealth, but all
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of her aspirations, her dreams. She really wanted to build
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  Speaker 1: this members only arts club on Park Avenue South and
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  Speaker 1: was even working to get the financing for it, and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: was not too far this John Limley. She lied to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a bank using phony records. She was not working to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: get funding. She was lying through her fate Russian teeth
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: crime stories with Nancy Grace. Anna, who interned at a
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: trendy French magazine, reportedly managed to scam extended stays in
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: swanky Manhattan hotels, dinner at high end restaurants, and flights
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: on chartered jets to finance her lavish lifestyle and keep
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the grift going. She allegedly built banks out of thousands
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: in cash. And that's not all. The fake heiress reportedly
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fleesed her friend out of sixty two thousand dollars for
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a world class trip to Morocco. But Anna went too
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: far when she attempted to take out a loan for
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: twenty two million dollars to finance a visual arts center
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  Speaker 1: she called the Anna Delvi Foundation. In all, Anna reportedly
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: scammed a total of two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and his double life began to crumble as hotels went
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  Speaker 1: after her unpaid debts and banks began to investigate her
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: alleged assets. Wow, 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,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: sometimes she'd be German. She had an accent to go
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  Speaker 1: with it, rubbing shoulders with the fashion lad at Paris
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  Speaker 1: Fashion Week, frequently spotted in London night spots. Then those
• 10:32
  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: private jet. How did she pull it off? Scamming nearly
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars. It was only when these ritzy
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  Speaker 1: hotels in New York went after her to pay her
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  Speaker 1: bills that the whole thing fell apart. But what really
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: amazed me. You know, I don't know if you do
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: this or not. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Fly on Amazon. Wendy, under the constitution, you can't force
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a defendant into court in handcuffs or leg irons or
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  Speaker 1: waist shackle. You can't force them to come in in
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: inmate jumpsuit, prison blues or orange or stripes, whatever the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: case may be. But I would always keep a jacket
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and pants and a couple of different sizes in my office.
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  Speaker 1: So when a defendant would show up on Monday morning
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  Speaker 1: trial calendar and say, oh, yeah, I want to go
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  Speaker 1: to trial, but I don't have a suit, I go, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I do have a suit for you, and they, of
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: course I never had it clean ever in the ten
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: years that I prosecuted, so they would just have to
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  Speaker 1: wear the suit. But she was more concerned about what
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: she wore to court every day. She had She actually
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: had a personal dresser dialist dressing her for court. Wendy. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Nancy, what you're describing really is something hopefully
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the judge will take into considering it sentencing, because it's
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: this entire mentality of I don't want to say just
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: not getting it. That would be too kind. It's a
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: complete underappreciation, or I should say non appreciation for the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: fact that the rest of us work for a living.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Her family works for a living. There is so much
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: more to life than clothes and appearance as an image.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that distinguishes this case
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: is the fact that this over emphasis on image, on money,
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  Speaker 1: on glamour sounds like it absolutely overrode every ounce of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: judgment that she had and to take that into the courtroom,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Nancy is probably a little bit beyond
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the pale. Well, listen to our friends and inside edition.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: This is Diane McInerney. This woman may look like she
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: has dressed for a fascist show, and in her designer does,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: but they want to be socialite. Is actually on trial
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  Speaker 1: for swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting people.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: She was so concerned about how she looked in court
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: she actually hired a stylist. Is she in a courtroom
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: or at a red carpet event? Anasaur Kid is accused
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of posing as an heiress to live an extravagant lifestyle,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: But it's what she's wearing to trial that is making headlines.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: The twenty seven year old defendant showed up wearing a
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: form fitting black dress with a plunging neckline and choker necklace.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: It's a look that could backfire. Warren stylist Don Karen
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: black dress definitely a no no no. A hyper sexualize her.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: It makes her appear to be like a seductress. The
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: choker kind of shows to me that she's trying to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: be overtly sexy. The more sexy she appears to be,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: it hurts her skin. Is so obsessed with her clothes.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: She refused to enter the courtroom because the outfit she
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was given to wear was not up to her standards.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: The angry judge told her this is unacceptable and inappropriate.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: This is not a fashion show. Sorkin's lawyer, Todd Spodek
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: says accounts of his client delaying the trial because of
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: fashion are being blown out of proportion. It's not that
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: she didn't want to come out only because of the clothes.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: She's going through a major criminal trial that's publicized every day.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: It's emotional and it's her life. Don't cry too much
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: for Anna, because apparently there's a bidding war going on
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: for her story. I guess it's going to end up
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: on Netflix or HBO or maybe even on the big screen.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: She'll make a mint out of that. I'm Nancy Grace.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: This is crime stories. Everybody, thank you for being with us.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: She was living a life that many people, not me,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: but many people dream of. She made a show of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: proving she belonged with the rich and famous, decked out
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: in signature Selene glasses, Gucci sandals, high end boas from
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: nat to Porte at Last Walker, she usually hold up
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: in a four hundred dollars a night room for months
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: on in at Manhattan's very very luxurious eleven Howard Hotel.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Concierge at the hotel said they became friends when she
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: would repeatedly routinely pass out Chris one hundred dollars tips
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to both of them and Uber drivers. When I hear
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the words crisp one hundred dollars, how many hundred dollars
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: bills do you have, Jackie? I don't think I have any.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I think John David has one, and it's hidden in
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: his bathroom under his brush. I happen to know where
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: it is. One that I know of that I think
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: my mother gave him. So Jeff Cortez, former FBI special Agent.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: When I hear the word crisp one hundred dollar bills,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that means you just got him out of an ATM
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: or from the bank. So how did she manage to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: defraud the bank to get cash, to tip concierge to
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: fake for her. Yeah, that's a great question, you know.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I think it's a numbers game in many respects. There
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: were multiple banks engaged in her activity. She appears, based
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: on the information, limited her trips back to the same well,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: though she would go back to the same bank on
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: occasion for certain certain banking activity. She did share the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: wealth amongst the banks within New York so as not
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to draw too much attention over an extended period of time. Well,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: what I understand that she did, and I'm going to
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: have to get clarity on this, is that she would
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: provide fake bank records to one bank and then they
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: would She was trying to get a massive loan for
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: twenty two million, so they wanted a down payment, So
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: she faked records and got I don't know, fifty two
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: one hundred grand from one bank and used that money
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to get a loan as a down payment on a loan,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a bigger loan at another bank, none of the banks
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: realizing what the others were doing. Another thing that really
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: fascinates me, doctor Williams. July, and not in a good way.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: It's like looking at a tarantula under a glass box. Okay,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that sort of fascination is the way she carried on
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: this big, huge imaginary life. She would splash out on
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: shopping spreeze at boutiques, very expensive personal training sessions and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: beautician appointments, and she would always bring along a friend
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and pay for them and they would be all impressed.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: The social elite as they call themselves, would go to
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: lavish and large dinners for celebs, artist CEOs. I'm all
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: in restaurants there in Soho And if you do look
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: at her online, she's always drinking a big glass of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: wine at some beautiful location. How can an adult have
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that type of an imaginary life? I mean, I know
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: when children have an imaginary friend, there's all sorts of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: psychological reasons for that, maybe just security, But an adult,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: certainly people can have these types of imaginary lives and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: they're going to recruit other people just because of the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: chronological age does not make a person have the maturation
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: that they should have. And then that can be from
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of different things, but certainly, as much as
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: she can get other people to buy into this, then
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: that's because she's going to continue and she's going to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: expand that imaginary life, and people can be very charming,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: They can be very off putting. Excuse me, they can
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: be very charming, and they can be very persuasive, and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: they can get other people to buy in. There are
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: people that can go into banks and they can fake
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: a story, and they can get people to believe that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: it happens every day. And this is a person who
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: can do that. And the imaginary fast parts of this.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't. I haven't examined her, so I
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: can't go so far as to say she's delusional or
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: anything like that, but clearly she has the ability, maybe
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a pathological type of charm. Some people can do that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And also you have to remember other people are buying
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: into this because the banks aren't changing credentials properly, friends
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: aren't following enough to see if she knows other people
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: in the circle. So it's it's even more. It's even
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: larger than just about her prime stories with Nancy Grace.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: The trial has begun in the case of the woman
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: who led people to believe she was a German heiress
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: named Anna Delvi. Twenty eight year old Anna Sorkin is
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: set to stand trial Wednesday on charges of grand larceny
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and theft of services after allegedly swindling two hundred and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars over the course of ten months,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Sarokin is also
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: accused of living in New York City hotel rooms she
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: could not pay for, attempting to secure a twenty two
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: million dollar loan to build a private arts club using
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: false bank statements purporting that she had millions of dollars overseas,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: as well as leaving a friend with a sixty two
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars bill for a trip to Morocco she allegedly
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: promised to pay for. Prosecutor Catherine McCaw says the defendant
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: has not a sent to her name as far as
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: we can determine, also noting that Sarokin is Russian born,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: not German, and though she could be deported to Germany
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: no matter how the trial turns out, as she's reportedly
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: overstayed her visa under the name Anna Delvi, she arrived
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: in New York with a high priced wardrobe and was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: known for handing out one hundred dollars cash tips, reportedly
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: saying at different points that her father was a diplomat,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: an oil baron, or involved in the solar panel business,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: none of which are the case. People who knew her
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: said she often asked others to use their credit cards
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: to cover cab and plane fares and then failing to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: repay them. Our friend Michael Cissack at time at Magazine Online, Yeah,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: there was one story that came out at trial how
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: she hired a PR firm to organize her birthday party
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: in Soho. It emerged she never paid the bill. During
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: her stay at eleven Howard, she struck up a friend
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: there in addition to the concierge is to and ask
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: for the recommendations for the very very very best food
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in Soho. We also learned that on one occasion she
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: invited friends to dinner at Soho St and Bro and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the friend ended up paying a whopper massive bill when
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Sarokan's twelve credit cards were all declined, but Sarakan paid
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: her back triple the amount the following day in cash.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: We also learned that she would go to unique treatments
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: like infrared saunas in the East Village, go out to
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: dinner after celebrity training sessions with Casey Duke which Sarakan
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: also paid for John Lemley. How did she get money
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: from one bank to get a loan from another bank?
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: How did that works? It's a very interesting line to follow.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: How she did this. She would go to a bank
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and ask for a certain line of credit based on
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: one a lot of times just a promise of the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: fact that she had millions overseas that she could repay
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the loan, and she would go from one bank with
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that money to another bank and get an even larger
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: In fact, here's an example. She talked to a to
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: an executive with City National Bank into giving her a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: line of credit on her account for one hundred thousand dollars,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: promising to repay it with a wire transfer from a
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: European account. She'd used that money in a failed attempt
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to secure a twenty five million dollar loan from Fortress
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Investment Group, and one of the managing directors at Fortress
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: has said that she ran into problems providing details about
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the origin of her wealth. Someone actually thought to ask
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: about that. You know, her lies became more and more spectacular.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor. In fact, she even managed to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: charter a private plane on one occasion with absolutely zero money. Wendy,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: how do you do that? Yeah? The level of sophistication Nancy,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: as John was explaining and as we know now looking back,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: was absolutely stunning. It was almost as if she was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: daring authorities to catch her in this escalating scheme of sophistication.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: And you know, the answer to how you do that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: is the same way we commit we see people committing
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: other crimes. Is sometimes people are so trusting because image matters.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: You know, This is something I talk about in my book.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: We tend to attribute all these positive qualities to somebody
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: who comes across as believable, whether they're pretty, or that
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: we like what they say, or were enamored with their
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: acts and or their clothes. All the types of things
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that Anna used to get ahead can fool other people
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: into letting them acquire the kind of wealth and as
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: you point out, tangible benefits that this young lady did.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: It's amazing to me that Hollywood is scrambling right now
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to try to get the rights to her story. This
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: is her disowner and say she borrowed money from them.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Two school friends back in Russia and Germany reveal she
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: was nicknamed Barbie and her favorite movie was Mean Girls.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Talk about Red Flags, John Leman, tell me about the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: lux treatment she got in Morocco where she ended up
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: stiffing her friend with the bill. Well, when they went
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: to Marrakesh, she went with a friend and she had
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: offered to pay for everything. Now her friend actually offered
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to help pay, but she said, no, no, no, you
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: work hard for your money, harder for your money than
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I do. This is my treat. And they would go
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: out for a round of drinks and oops, she forgot
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: her credit cards. So she would ask, you know, very quietly,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: if the friend could, you know, just cover this one check.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: And that would happen over and over and over again.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: And this friend, in the end ended up covering the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: sixty two thousand dollars cost of the flights, dining, shopping,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and the stay at a hotel where they had a
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: private villa with a courtyard, a pool, and a butler,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: all the extravagance that you might say was fit for,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: say a Kardashian, a sixty two thousand dollar vacation that
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: is more than most people make an entire year. While
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: in Marrakesh, Morocco, Sorokan aka Delvy took part in all
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the activities the hotel had to offer. For instance, they
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: took private tennis lessons. They ate breakfast pool side. A
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: butler would deliver them fresh watermelons and bottles of rose.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: They roamed the gardens, relaxed, swam and the villa's private pool,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: took a tour of the wine cellar, ate dinner with
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: live Moroccan music, before capping off their nights with cocktails
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: at the Churchill Bar. I mean, this is a trip
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that most people only dream of, you know, Wendy Patrick.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Don't laugh. But a couple of weekends ago, we really
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: lived it up. I took the children camping, we went fishing.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: We built fires with our own hands, of course, and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I did not use light or fluid this time after
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: my disastrous RV trip. Okay from twigs that we picked
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: up and gathered wood and built fires. Yes, I can
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: build a fire two nights in a row. And had
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: hot dogs. I don't mean gourmet hot dogs. I mean
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the pink kind that you're not really sure what they are.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: They're long and skinny and slimy at the grocery store.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And then we made some moores. And can I tell
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you it was one of the happiest weekends of my
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: whole life. The twins are still talking about it, and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: then I'm looking at this girl and I feel blessed
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of gotten to do that. Believe me, I'm not complaining.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm counting my blessings. But i mean, really
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: fresh watermelon and rose poolside in Marrakesh, and it's all
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a big money grab. I mean, my stomach is just
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: hurting because I'm thinking about my dad, who would go
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to work on the railroad when even when he had
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: chest pains, and when I would wake up in the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: morning at seven o'clock, my mom was already gone to
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: work at a canning company, and there would be three
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: bowls of grits and three little cups of coffee half milk,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: half coffee sitting there for us because she'd be long
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: gone to work. And now here's miss thing having a
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: nearly seventy thousand dollars vacation built on crime. Yeah, you know, Nancy,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: one of the things your camping story illustrates is that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the best things in life are free, and everybody knows that.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: So when you look at a story like this, part
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of I think the offense that everyone is taking is
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to use crime and criminal activity to build a fake
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: world where people pay the kind of money that most
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of us would never do even if we had it.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: When you talk about the value of hard work the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: way we were all raised, it sounds like those she
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: surrounded herself were really taken with the fact that someone
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: they believed was as rich and famous as she was
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: would be interested in them. That is a basic human need. Ironically,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that was being satisfied through crime and through, as you
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: pointed out earlier, having this imaginary friend that's larger than life.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: That's how she built this criminal umpire crime stories with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace her true history. I'm talking about Anna Sirokan
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: aka Anna Delvi. You know, I don't know about you,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Jeff Cortez, a FBI special agent, but I loved it
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: when I would. Of course, the prosecutor gets in front
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of an entire jury panel and reads the indictment before
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you begin jury selection, so everybody knows who's charged with
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: what and what all the counts are. And I would
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: love it to say State versus Jeff Cortize aka Charlie
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Tuna aka the Hammer aka Blah blah blah, and so
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: forth and so on. I would love reading out ten
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: or twelve aliases, and by the time you're done reading that,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the jury just looks at the person because you're so
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: You're you're guilty. You're guilty. Why are you? Why do
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: you have twelve aliases? And this girl, I'm telling you,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: not only had eliases, but she had fake assistance. She
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: lied about her mom and dad who they really are.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: The reality is that her father was a truck driver
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and he went on to work at or start a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: heating and air conditioned business. The friends in school called
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: her Barbie and her favorite movie was Mean Girls. And
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's any of that is good. Okay,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: that means nothing good, Jeff Cartize, no hit on the head.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: You know, the minute individuals start layering themselves with aliases
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and aka's, you know, they're they're putting up walls and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: barriers that that any jury is going to be able
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to see through. You know, she really executed a well
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: thought out plan against the banks, using multiple techniques and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: methods to siphon money from them. Uh, you know, from
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: from top to bottom. She exploited what people want to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: see and exploited the type of lifestyle that people want
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to have to the extent that, you know, if I
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: was going to run an undercover I would I would
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: have done many of the techniques that that she did
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: in order to manipulate my audience. Well, another aspect to this,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: John Lumley, is I remember one day when John David
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: came running home and so and So's mom is so cool.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: She works for Chick fil A and she gets free
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: T shirts and she gets this, and she gets that.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I think the lady who's very lovely was in marketing
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: or pr and would bring home, you know, like a
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: T shirt or a moocau or whatever they had. And
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I thought briefly of creating a different persona to try
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to impress John David's friends, who were then four years old. Okay,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: but I just decided, no, I'm just gonna with the truth,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: you know, let the chips fall where they may. But
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: John Lemley, I mean, that would hurt me if I
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: found out the twins were lying about their mom and dad,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: that what we are isn't good enough to fit in
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: to their self image they're projecting, that would really hurt
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: my feelers. And that's exactly the way her parents felt
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: about the whole thing. They actually did help fund her
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: through college and as she was getting out on her own,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: but there was never any sort of trust fund. She
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: moved to Germany in two thousand and seven, and after
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: she dropped out of college, she interned in public relations
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: before then moving to Paris and became an intern at
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Purple Magazine. Once she arrived in New York City, she
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: just somehow managed to be in all the sort of
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: right places. And she was this German heiress, according to her,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: with a father that you would think, wait a minute,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I thought she was supposed to be a Russian heiress. Well, no,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: she was from Russia, but she told people she was
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: a German heiress. What's really funny, though, is that her German,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: according to a lot of people, was terrible. M I
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: want you to take a listen to what the defense
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: claims in closing arguments. She had to fake it until
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: she could make it. Those words from the defendant's own attorney,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: who claims she never intended to commit a crime, but
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: prosecutors call her fraud and a liar who would do
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: almost anything to prolong her life of luxury. This morning,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: the fate of an alleged scam artist is now in
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the hands of a jury, both sides wrapping up arguments
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: for a case that's drawn international outrage. The style savvy
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: defendant even turning heads in court wearing an animal print dress.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: She called herself Anna Delvi, a fashionable globetrotter who prosecutors
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: say was pretending to be a high flying ran heiress
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: living a fairytale life of glitz and glam among Manhattan's elite.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: That is amor, Prosecutors say, the twenty eight year old,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: whose real name is Anna Sorkin, stole two hundred and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars from banks, hotels, and friends, all
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: part of an elaborate scheme to keep up her illusion
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of grander. Prosecutors also alleged Sorkin tried securing a twenty
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: two million dollars loan to operate a private club, claims
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: her lawyer denies. I do not believe she had the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: intent to ever commit a crime. Whether she owes people money,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: that's effect of life. That's that's the reality of doing
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: business in New York. Now facing charges of grand larceny
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: and theft, she could spend up to fifteen years in
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: prison if convicted, but officials say even if acquitted, she
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: will be deported to Germany. Sorkin's attorney says she got
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: in over her head but was just buying time until
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: she could pay everyone back. You're hearing our buddy Johnson
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: at GMA, at ABC pay everybody back. I saw no
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: signs of paying everybody back and calling this doing business.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: That's certainly putting perfume on the pig. Now you know
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: there's a problem. Wendy Patcheck, California prosecutor and author of
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: red Flags. When the defense to theft and fraud is
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: fake it till you make it, okay, I would not
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: say that that's a valid defense and a fraud case
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you're admitting you're faking it. It's probably not a good
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: theme for the defense one. I'm sure they're rethinking right
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: about now. You don't want to that's kind of playing
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: right into the prosecutor's case. Now what they probably were
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: trying to do, interestingly in trial and Nancy, you and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I have both seen this is really kind of painting
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: this vulnerability picture of the defendant to try to make
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: somebody feel sorry for her, that she was caught up
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: in this false lifestyle, felt she had to pretend she
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: was somebody she wasn't who can't relate to that. There's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit of Anna and all of us, you know,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: some of the themes we saw. What I want to
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: isolate what you just said. The defense argued at trial
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: as if Anna Sarrokan aka Anna Delphi was some type
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of a renegade and a rebel, someone who was, you know,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: making her own path in the world creatively. B As,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: don't tell me there's a little bit of Anna Sarrokan
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: in me, because that was their defense. There's a little
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: bit of Anna and all of us. Oh no, because
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: she is a fraud, a thief, and she ripped people
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: off and they're never gonna get repaid. Wendy, right, that's
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying that. Well, that's blably why she was convicted,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: because these defenses are just not realistic to jurors, to
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: hard working jurors that go on camping trips like you did,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and Jess cannot relate to the fact that we are
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: anything like this picture of Anna. Nonetheless, we have seen
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: this defense time and again and thankfully it is not successful.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: You know. And speaking of mellow camping trip, God willing
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I get to go one another one take a listen
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to this. The courtroom drama played out late into the evening.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: At one point the jury appeared deadlock, the defense asking
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: for a mistrial, but then the verdict, jurors agreeing with
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the prosecution that Anna Saurakin built her fairytale life on
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: a foundation of theft and lies. Overnight, a New York
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: City jury finding socialite Annasaurkan, a so called SOHO grifter,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: guilty on eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: and theft of services. Prosecutors arguing the twenty eight year
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: old stole a quarter of a million dollars from banks, hotels,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and friends to fund a lavish lifestyle. The jurors obviously
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: believed our point of view and followed our logic and
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: acquitted her for the top charges. I'm sad and that
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: she was convicted of some of the other charges. Prosecutors
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: say the Russian born Sorokin, who called herself Anna Delvi,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: was pretending to be a high flying German heiress living
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: a life of glamor among Manhattan's elite. Authorities say she
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: even forged financial documents hoping to get a twenty two
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: million dollar loan to open a private club in the
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Big Apple. While she was turned down, she did convince
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: one bank to loan her one hundred thousand dollars, which
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: she never paid back or lawyer saying she meant to
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: but had gotten in over her head and was just
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: buying time. Well, I guarantee you she's not getting breakfast
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: in bad fresh watermelon and rose A Rikers Nancy Grace
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: crime Story signing off Goodbye friend.