It’s been said that this happens more than we think. People are getting rich by pretending to be rich first. This is what Anna Sorokin did and the entire story exposed.
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Who is Anna Sorokin?
Anna Sorokin is her real name while Anna Sorokin Delvey is a name that she adopted when she arrived in New York with a fake persona.
Anna Sorokin was born in Russia in 1991 but grew up in Germany. She came from a middle-class family. She wasn’t rich nor was she poor.
She conned many of New York’s elites by telling lies that she was to inherit 60 million from her father soon.
She was caught, sentenced to jail, and deported to Germany. Her story inspired a Netflix drama called Inventing Anna.
The timeline of Anna Sorokin Delvy’s scam
- Summer of 2016: Anna arrived in New York. She was partying a lot in New York and the Hamptons. She was there in art gallery openings and expensive restaurants. She was served stuff that wasn’t even on the menu of these expensive eating establishments.
At this stage of her life, she wanted to buy a building on Park Avenue in New York City. It’s the Church Missions House. It’s basically prime real estate for those who aren’t familiar with New York’s landscape. She wanted to build an art gallery, pop-up shop, bakery, gym, and juice bar on the property. Anna even hired a PR company and talked to financial advisors.
At some point, Anna decided to leave New York for Germany. She said it’s due to some visa issues.
- Late 2016: Anna went to National Bank to ask for a loan of 22 million. She falsified documents to claim that she owned 60 million dollars worth of assets in British pounds. She was successful in that meeting and the bank asked her to wire them $100,000 to cover legal expenses and the fee of investigating her. She then went over to Fortress bank and asked for $100,000. She may have said something to indicate that a loan is coming to her in the sum of $22 million. Fortress agreed and Anna wire National Bank the $100,000.
She also forged fake checks to banks and pull money out before they realized it was a bad check. Anna doesn’t use a credit card. She always had cash on her because her credit score was so bad.
- February 2017: Anna returned to New York and make herself at home at a luxury hotel at 11 Howard. She was eating at LeCouCou and working out with expensive personal trainers.
It was also at this time that Anna backed out of the deal with National Bank. She was only able to get back part of the $100,000 she wired them. They had gone through $55k of Anna’s fund from Fortress already in the legal process of investigating her.
- March 2017: Anna’s bills were racking up and because the hotel didn’t have a working credit card from Anna, things weren’t looking good. Anna paid a part of her bills (the money comes from her pulling out of the deal with National Bank) in cash but it wasn’t enough to cover her bills. During this time, she left New York on a $35,000 private plane. She arrived at Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway annual stockholders meeting in Nebraska.
- May 2017: Anna and Rachael (a photo editor at Vanity Fair) and a couple of other people went to Morroco for vacation. They stayed at an exclusive resort. Anna couldn’t afford the trip but Anna offered to cover it for her.
The hotel didn’t have a working credit card from Anna. They were polite with Anna at first as they thought it was a misunderstanding but soon they realized more drastic actions needed to be taken. Some staff was even fired over this issue Anna caused. Anna told Rachael to cover the bills and that she’ll pay her back. Anna explained that it was just a misunderstanding. When Rachael got home, she realized she was charged for the entire trip. Anna conned Rachael out of $62k when Rachael was making less than $60k per year at the time. Rachael even wrote a whole book about the ordeal and the book was quite a bestseller.
- June 2017: Anna returned to New York City and found herself locked out of 11 Howard. They even took all of her stuff. Anna then checks into The Beekman, another luxury hotel. She incurred a bill of $11k there before being kicked out. They let her go without paying first.
At this point, the property Anna wanted to buy was sold to someone else. If she could’ve successfully secured the loan from the bank to buy the property, she could’ve easily made enough money to pay back every penny she owed and still have a lot left.
- December 2017: Anna was arrested. She was charged with grand larceny, theft of services, and falsifying documents among other charges.
Anna owed $275,000 from banks, hotels, and friends.
- Early 2019: Anna went on trial. She hired a fashion coordinator to dress her. She also delayed the trial many times due to the fact that she didn’t like what she was wearing. I don’t know much about legal court case proceedings but I didn’t think it was possible for an offendant to delay trial out of her own free will. Maybe Anna was just really good.
Anna was found guilty on 3 counts of grand larceny, 4 counts of theft of services, and 3 counts of attempted grand larceny.
She was sentenced to 4–12 years in prison. She also was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution and $24,000 in fine.
If you think she felt sorry for what she did, think again. She has said in an interview that she “wasn’t sorry and would probably do it again”.
Inside the mind of a con artist
In many ways, you can view a con artist as heartless. They don’t care about stealing people’s money, lying to people, or even stealing people’s identities. In their minds, they think it’s your fault for believing in their lies and for falling into their traps.
Anna has famously said in an interview with 60 Minutes, “…can you name me the names of the people? And I’ll tell you if I feel bad…” in response to “do you feel bad about the people who got burned along the way?”.
How did she do it?
- Body language
If you look closely, Anna Sorokin does have the body language that a rich person (or a fake rich person) would exhibit. The air of superiority and odd calmness as though they are in control of everything and they aren’t worried about much else.
If you’re an employee in a company, your body language would be different from that of a CEO or your supervisor. You may not consciously recognize what your body is doing but an employee would tend to make themselves smaller and particularly when their bosses are around. A boss or a CEO would naturally appear larger and may take up more space when they enter a room. They may sprawl their limbs and push their shoulders back.
Look at Anna Sorokin’s body language: she tends to look up or straight ahead (instead of down), she walks slow (it gives the impression that you’re in charge and in control when you walk slow but not too slow), and she flares a bit of an annoyance — it may show up in the particular way she flicks her hair, the way she picks up her phone and scrolls through as though she’s unimpressed with what’s happening around her, etc.
Her body language certainly doesn’t look inviting, approachable, or likable but she does show up with an air of superiority that would impress the most materialistic people as they categorize her as different from the rest perhaps “richer” from the rest.
- Great acting skills
Anna undeniably played the role of a rich heiress really well the only thing missing is the actual money. Some may think she was rich by the way she acts but that’s far from the case.
If it wasn’t for her great acting skills, she would’ve been caught way sooner. Who in their right minds would check into a luxury hotel knowing that they can’t afford it? What would you do when someone asks you to pay your due bills and you can’t supply a working credit card? Clearly, Anna wasn’t concerned with any of that because she was showering staff with $100 bills and acted as though everything was a misunderstanding and they believed her. That’s how good she was.
- No remorse
How did Anna achieve such a flawless portrayal of a rich character without being one herself? Well, you can count her remorse as part of the reason or the lack of thereof.
Anna didn’t show any remorse when she was caught and even after she was sentenced she wasn’t sorry. Her tears were for herself. She said she would do it again and no doubt she would.
She’s the kind of person that won’t feel guilty for duping you out of your hard-earned cash and if she had felt an ounce of remorse, it would’ve faltered her confidence and the persona she crafted.
At any point during her vacation in Morocco, had she felt guilty about using Rachael she wouldn’t have appeared as confident or sure of herself. If that nonchalantness was dropped, staff would be a lot more aggressive with asking her to pay.
You see, Anna has to play that rich character really well in order for people to think that she’s got it all under control and if at any point, she lets fear and doubts enter her mind, it would all come crashing down.
I think it’s her ability to push things to the future instead of worrying about it and just focus on playing the character well at the moment that got her so far.
- Denial as a defense mechanism
During her interview on 60 Minutes, Anna Soroski denied being a con artist. Somewhere in her mind maybe she does think she is one but her mind has blocked it out.
Remember the reason she was able to play the rich character really well? Well, any great actor/actress’ secret to great acting is to believe it yourself and if she believes that she’s rich (despite the fact that she wasn’t and still isn’t) she’ll be able to play that character quite well.
Thus in her mind, it’s hard for her to accept the fact that what she did was a scam and that she was a con artist because she has to continue to play her “rich” persona.
Why does Anna Sorokin have so many supporters?
You may be surprised to learn that not everyone is disgusted by what Anna has done in fact, many people are in awe of Anna’s story, and she gladly rode that wave to fame.
There’s quite a high degree of fascination and curiosity with what Anna has been able to “achieve”.
There’s a common sentiment among the public that the rich are to be blamed for their suffering. And for someone to dupe the rich out of money, the scene is often met with admiration and praise. As long as Anna wasn’t duping the lower class out of money, they believe the rich could stand a bit of the loss in monetary gain. It may perhaps bring them some solace in the face of their own financial struggles.
Did anyone become rich with Anna Sorokin’s method?
It’s quite possible that other people got rich doing exactly the same thing that Anna Sorokin did but they were never caught. They pretended as though they were rich or important and they use their status and influence to secure funds that they otherwise would have been granted. That money can be turned into more money thus making them actually rich.
Anna could have succeeded had she been a bit more discreet with her spending. She could’ve stayed at a mediocre hotel and paid her bills on time. She could’ve let National Bank continue to investigate her. Perhaps, they would’ve found out it was a fraud, or perhaps they would’ve lent her the money.
Anna would be able to secure the 22 million to buy the property and turn some good profit.
No one would’ve suspected anything because then she’d be able to pay them back with the profit she earned from her scheme.
This is why we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Just because someone looks and acts rich doesn’t mean they are. In fact, social media is littered with people who act rich but in fact, work a normal 9–5 job, and their real lives are far from the riches and glamour depicted online.
Final thought
There are other ways to become rich without scamming anybody and risking jail time.
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