A woman who was once a figure on New York's social scene by pretending to be a German heiress and swindling her friends and businesses out of tens of thousands of dollars was sentenced Thursday to at least four years in prison.
Anna Sorokin, 28, who used the name Anna Delvey for her ruses, was convicted last month by a Manhattan jury on four counts of theft services, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny. She was acquitted of grand larceny and attempted grand larceny, according to The Associated Press.
New York Judge Diane Kiesel sentenced Sorokin on Thursday to four to 12 years in prison, saying she was “stunned by the depth of the defendant’s deception."
Prosecutors said Sorokin convinced friends and businesses to give her money to fund her lavish lifestyle by falsely claiming that her father was a diplomat or an oil baron, and she had a fortune of more than $60 million overseas.
In one instance, she promised a friend an all-expense-paid trip to Morocco but left her pal with the $62,000 bill, prosecutors alleged.
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Another time, Sorokin persuaded a bank to lend her $100,000, which she never paid back. Sorokin, who faces deportation back to Germany because authorities said she overstayed her visa, was also accused of forging financial documents in an attempt to get a $22 million loan for a private arts club she wanted to open.
Sorokin's lies allowed her to steal around $275,000, including a $35,400 bill for a flight she chartered to and from Nebraska, prosecutors said.
Before Kiesel handed down the sentence, Sorokin addressed the court, saying, “I apologize for the mistakes I made.”
Her attorney, Todd Spodek, previously said she planned to repay her debts and was merely "buying time."
