Anna Sorokin is the scam artist you know as Anna Delvey – the 27-year-old New York party girl and grifter charged with grand larceny while financing a life of luxury. While she charmed fashion editors, hotels, socialites, and investors in her start-up, it looks like the judge trying her case isn’t so easily deceived. 

Delvey currently faces charges for theft of services and grand larceny to around $275,000 for all her fraud and scams. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecution has offered a plea deal, where if she pleads guilty, she’ll serve between three and nine years in prison. Her defence team countered with a maximum time of three years. At present, she’s pleaded not guilty.

She’s behind bars at Rikers Island right now, though reportedly shows no sense of remorse for what she’s done. “This place is not that bad at all actually,” she told The Cut. “People seem to think it’s horrible, but I see it as like, this sociological experiment. 

Since her arrest in October 2017 and the subsequent hype around what seems like the peak of grifter season, news broke that director Shonda Rhimes was taking on the story to make it a Netflix series, with both Margot Robbie and Jennifer Lawrence interested in the lead role. The fascination and admiration for Delvey continues to grow.

“Screw the higher-ups, dumb hotels and idiotic banks. Anna is a genius,” Neff Davis, the hotel concierge who became Delvey’s friend, tweeted. Davis also told Paper Magazine that Delvey was loving her newfound stardom, and had opinions on who she wanted to play her in the TV series (no to Lindsay Lohan, yes to Margot Robbie).

As the New York post reports, the judge had no sympathy for Delvey at her hearing on Tuesday (June 19). “I see no remorse... She seems more concerned about who is going to play her in the movie than what she’s done to the people she allegedly took advantage of,” Justice Diane Kiesel said. 

Delvey’s story, unpacked in the fascinating investigation on The Cut, saw her spend long stretches of time in expensive hotels and luxurious holidays, engaging with art, fashion, and banking world social circles (Martin Shkreli to Macauley Culkin), all while cultivating the cash flow and personal brand to help her launch the Soho House-style Anna Delvey Foundation. Delvey presented herself as a German heiress to scam hundreds of thousands of dollars out of friends, banks, and investors.

Judge Kiesel rejected Delvey’s asking for 1-3 years, describing it as “a mere slap on the wrist for a crime this serious”. The case will now go to trial September 18.