Deborah Roberts
Appearances
20/20
True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You're beginning to make the press. There are newspaper headlines. What did you make of that?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You eventually go to the district attorney's office, and what do you learn?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
The district attorney is trying to track her down, and you want to be helpful in this.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
So you were arrested again? Yes. What did you think? What did you feel?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
At this moment, it's pretty clear to everybody you've dealt with that there is no money, that you're no German heiress. Were you living a lie? I don't feel I was, no.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Many people see you as the ultimate scammer. Are you scamming us? Do you call scams?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You were taken to Rikers Island, one of the most frightening jails in the country. What was that like for you? Were you terrified?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You were there for 19 months? Yes. Did you feel that you were in danger ever?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Did you have celebrity status in jail? I definitely did, yes. And then you strike a Netflix deal.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
So you're essentially making money off of this. I mean, was it kind of a joke to you?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
But Anna, what defendant has clothes brought in by a stylist?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Prosecutors said that your story was lie after lie after lie. That's what they told the jury.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
What were you expected to provide as proof that you have these millions and millions of dollars overseas?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Anna never testified in court, and during our interview, her lawyer wouldn't let her answer many of my questions about those dealings with the banks. The impression that they get from documents is that you have a lot of money in accounts. Was that by design? Um, yes. So you wanted them to think that you had a lot of money to put up?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Did you have that amount of money in overseas accounts? I can't answer that. And how do you come up with bank statements? I can't answer that. How were you able to falsify documents?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
February 11th, you walked out of prison a free woman.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
When you look at the evidence that the prosecution presented, it looks like this was... A scam.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Your lawyer at the time said that you did nothing wrong, that you exploited a system easily seduced by glitz and glamour, that you told little white lies. Is that what happened?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
When did you begin to realize that you could not afford your life and pay people back?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
But the one thing Anna couldn't fix was the actual truth behind her identity. Who was this heiress and where did she come from? Surely not from wealth.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You had not seen Anna for a long time. What was it like when you walked in that courtroom to testify?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
If she wasn't born an heiress, then who exactly was she? The woman who claimed to be Anna Delvey was actually born Anna Sorokin, far from the skyscrapers of Manhattan in a small town in Russia. You were born in Russia. Yes. What was your childhood like? Were you happy?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Those dreams would eventually lead to Paris. Following her lifelong interest in fashion, she eventually got a position at a glossy magazine called Purple. And Anna Sorokin morphed into Anna Delvey.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Let me just have you say, pronounce, and spell your name, please.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
And that's when she began telling everybody about the idea for that art center, the Anna Delvey Foundation. And she had to come up with money to make it happen. Everything after that leads back to that courtroom in Lower Manhattan, and Rachel taking the stand in an emotional moment, telling about that trip to Morocco.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
What was that like for you as you watched her, your friend, testifying against you?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
How would you describe the real Anna Delvey? Who is she?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
There are some people who would say you benefited from her greed. They don't see you as a victim.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Remember, the charges against Anna go a lot farther than just that one situation with Rachel. No matter what the jurors think about Rachel, as deliberations begin, the big question is, what do they think about Anna?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Some of the jurors didn't feel sympathetic for your situation with Anna. How did that feel for you?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
After the guilty verdict, you are sent to Albion Correctional Facility.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
And remember that Netflix deal of more than $300,000? Well, it turns out the New York state law won't let Anna profit from her crimes. So that money first has to be used to pay back her victims.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
On February 11th, after spending just under four years of her four to 12 year sentence in prison, Anna is released early for good behavior.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You're just a few weeks out of prison, but yet you're still active.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Anna even goes so far as to call herself a professional defendant. This doesn't look like a woman who has been through prison and who has learned something from prison. You're casually, happily back on social media.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
But Anna, you have people following you on social media who say things like queen and I'm so pleased for you. I mean, it almost seems like this is just sort of a game to you.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Anna has been held in detention in immigration custody since March. Her lawyer has been trying to get her released.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Anna was in her early 20s when she showed up in New York City from Paris back in 2013. She had come from a middle class background, she had no job, but somehow once she was here through a combination of deception and assumptions, people got the impression that she was wealthy.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Many people see you as the ultimate scammer. Are you scamming us?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. See you then.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
This is Deborah Roberts. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Each week, we reach back into our archives and bring you a story we found unforgettable.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
The impression is that you're kind of like sliding through life and you don't have to sign for anything and people just kind of let you do what you want. I guess, yes. So if you're creating the illusion that you have a certain amount of money, even though you don't, did you see that as a problem? Not at the time. but it would soon become a big problem, a criminal matter.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
The trouble began when Anna set her sights on this historic building in midtown Manhattan. As outrageous as it sounds, this young, unemployed newcomer with no business experience believed that she could fake her way into getting the millions of dollars necessary to turn it into her dream come true.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
How did they treat you, this young 20-something, with these grand ideas for a project?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Did you tell people that you were an heiress? Absolutely not.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Oh, my goodness. What have you done? Take a listen. dealt with, that there is no money, that you're no German heiress. Were you living a lie?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You would pay for things, mostly, when you two went out. Why?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
So it was pretty casual, but you figured she had money.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
She would later on say, she just assumed you were a socialite.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
But she would soon learn that not everything was what it seemed. I mean, not even Anna's last name, Delvey? She made that up. Her real name was Sorokin. Where's the name Delvey come from? I just came up with it. You just made it up? Yes. It's not a family name? No. You just like that better than Sorokin? Yes.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
This is the first time you've sat down for a television interview. Why are you talking with us?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Little did she know that a trap was about to be laid that was going to lead to her downfall.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
Why are you treating everybody a $7,000 a night room?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
So now you have a tab of 60 plus thousand dollars? Yes.
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
She's reaching out to you to pay her back. Do you know that she is beside herself with worry about the card?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
You're texting Anna. No reimbursement. What are you thinking?
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True Crime Vault: The Sinfluencer of Soho
At this stage, you don't have the money to pay Rachel.