Faux Heiress With Netflix/Shonda Rhimes Deal May Not Get Money Under NY “Son Of Sam” Law
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For faux heiress Anna Sorokin, crime may not pay.
The scam artist who became a hot Hollywood commodity after she was profiled in a New York Magazine article, How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People by Jessica Pressler, signed a lucrative deal with Netflix for her story. An estimated dozen producers were pursuing the story for a screen adaptation for TV and/or features.
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The rights were eventually acquired by Netflix, with Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes attached. It would be Rhimes’s first series for the streaming service.
But New York’s “Son of Sam” law prevents people from profiting from their crimes. So the state Attorney General’s office is hoping to convince a judge that any profits from the Netflix drama should go to her victims, according to a report by the New York Post.
“The monies sought to be preserved herein, constitute “profits from a crime,’” said Assistant Attorney General Adele Durand in court papers.
Sorokin posed as a German heiress named Anna Delvey, and used the pretense to get funding from friends, free hotel rooms, and bank loans. She was convicted in May and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison.
But because Sorokin signed the Netflix deal before her trial, she received money. The first fruits of the deal were $30,000, which went directly to her lawyer. The Attorney General challenge is to block other payments under the Son of Sam law.
Sorokin reportedly was due another $70,000 on June 8. That payment is on hold. She is also contractually owed a $7,500 royalty in addition to a $15,000 consulting fee for each episode in the series.
She faces a restitution order in the case totaling over $198,000, with $100,000 of that due CIty National Bank.
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Sorokin hired a celebrity stylist to handpick her courtroom attire, which included pieces from Yves Saint Laurent, Victoria Beckman and Miu Miu. But the handoff of designer clothing to her often didn’t go smoothly on Rikers Island, and Sorokin, dissatisfied with her wardrobe, threw sobbing temper tantrums that delayed the trial.
Ex Sorokin friend Rachel Williams sold her story on their friendship and an ill-fated trip to Morocco to HBO and Simon & Schuster in a deal worth $600,000. The book is expected to be released this Tuesday, sources said.
Sorokin earlier told the New York Times in an interview that she’s not sorry.
“I’d be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything,” Sorokin told The New York Times. “I regret the way I went about certain things.”
“My motive was never money,” she said, adding, “I was power hungry. I’m not a good person.”
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