New York prosecutors on Tuesday portrayed fake German heiress Anna Sorokin as a profligate con artist, while her lawyer insisted she was an aspiring businesswomen taken in by the city’s extravagance, as both sides wrapped up their arguments.
Jurors are to decide whether Sorokin is guilty of grand larceny and theft of services following a spending spree that spanned 10 months and, prosecutors alleged, defrauded people and businesses out of US$275,000 and bankrolled her foray into the Manhattan socialite scene.
The deliberations capped a more than three-week trial that drew international attention and tabloid headlines about Sorokin’s courtroom fashion choices.
Sorokin, who adopted the name Anna Delvey, deceived friends and financial institutions alike into believing she had 60 million euros (US$67.3 million) in wealth overseas that would cover her lavish hotel stays and jet-setting lifestyle.
Closing arguments focused in large part on Sorokin’s intent, which prosecutors must demonstrate was criminal in order to convict her.
Her defense attorney, Todd Spodek, insisted that Sorokin had been “buying time” and planned all along to settle her six-figure debts, portraying her as an entrepreneur who got in over her head.
He compared her at one point to Frank Sinatra, saying: “They both created their own opportunities” in New York.
“There’s a little bit of Anna in all of us,” Spodek said. “This is the life she chose to live.”
Sorokin “was ambitious, she was persistent and she was determined to make her business a reality,” Spodesk said, referring to a private arts club she proposed building and for which she sought a US$22 million loan.
She led an unorthodox — and at times unethical — lifestyle, but Sorokin was “enabled every step of the way by a system that favors people with money,” he added.
New York County Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw said that Sorokin told “lie after lie” to prolong a life of luxury she could not afford, providing forged financial records and identifications to banks.
She lived out of ritzy hotels on an overdrawn account, dined at the finest restaurants and even hired a personal trainer who charged US$300 a session, McCaw said.
Sorokin not only assumed a different identity for herself, but created a team of “imaginary” assistants, McCaw said.
There was, for instance, an accountant who did not exist whom Sorokin blamed for delays in wire transfers, she said.
“All of the defendant’s wire transfers are merely a figment of her imagination,” McCaw said. “These are not white lies. These are lies that help you understand that the defendant, in fact, had criminal intent in this case.”
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