‘Fake heiress’ Anna Sorokin insists she’s not a ‘dumb, greedy person’ in new interview
Notorious “Fake Heiress” Anna Sorokin insisted in a new interview that she’s not a “dumb, greedy person” and had no “fraudulent intent” when she swindled Manhattan’s elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In her first sit-down television interview since her release from prison, the 30-year-old convicted thief told ABC’s Deborah Roberts she wants to rewrite her story and clear her reputation.
“I would like to show the world that I’m not this dumb, greedy person that they portrayed me to be,” Sorokin says in the segment, which is set to air on “20/20” Friday night.
“I never had a fraudulent intent… And I guess that’s what should really count,” she said, according to a portion of the interview released Thursday.
Sorokin’s elaborate scam saw her pose as a German heiress with a multi-million trust fund to rip off more than $200,000 from hotels, banks and private jet operators. She was convicted in April 2019 and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison in May 2019 — before being released early for good behavior.
The Russian-born wannabe socialite then raised eyebrows when she was back on Instagram and Twitter within hours of getting sprung from prison in February, posting lavish images of herself drinking champagne in a claw-foot bathtub and living a life of leisure.
“They brought me my phone, so I got on social media,” she told Roberts.
Asked what the future holds, Sorkin responded, “I guess it remains to be seen.”
“I’m just trying to rewrite my story.”
In the interview, Sorokin’s former friend Rachel DeLoache Williams, who was fleeced of more than $62,000 by Sorokin, said she never saw a single sign that she was a fraudster.
“People have asked [me], were there red flags?” Williams said. ”I never questioned that she was who she said she was. I never had reason to and I wouldn’t have thought that way.”
But by the end of their friendship, Sorokin “owed me more money than I made in a year,” said Williams, who was then a young editor at Vanity Fair magazine.
Sorokin was convicted on eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny and theft of services.
In March, she was asked by a BBC reporter if “crime pays” after Netflix controversially paid her about $320,000 for the rights to her life story.
“In a way, it did,” she fired back.
