Former lawyer Anna 'Delvi' Sorokina fled with her court file: now the Russian-speaking swindler has additional problems

Anna "Delvy" Sorokina is seeking to challenge her conviction for over $200 in an elaborate scam that inspired the hit Netflix series. But there's a catch - her former lawyer refuses to hand over her court file, reports Fox News.

Sorokina's new lawyer, Duncan Levin, a prominent New York criminal defense attorney, sued Audrey Thomas and filed ethics complaints against her.

“I have never seen such behavior on the part of a lawyer in my life,” said Levine, a former U.S. attorney. - It's completely unprofessional. It hurts my client. We need a dossier to properly prepare her appeal.”

According to the lawsuit, Thomas held the dossier in her possession for at least 4 months. Thereby postponing the consideration of the appeal in immigration and criminal cases.

The case includes 27 pages of physical evidence, which partially document the negotiations between lawyers.

Sorokina's best chance to stay in the US is to overturn a 2019 conviction for posing as a wealthy heiress, stealing from banks and companies to infiltrate New York high society.

Instead of returning to Germany, where she would have been immediately released, the 31-year-old fraudster is in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Orange County Correctional Facility in New York City and is trying her best to avoid deportation.

She hired Thomas in 2020 after dropping her trial lawyer, Todd Spodek.

By the way, the latter is a notable character in the popular Netflix series Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner.

In an email, Thomas gave excuses for the delay in transferring the case. She added in a post dated April 7: “I don't work in the month of April because it's the month I was born. And so I am out of the country until April 30, 2022. Anna knows it."

On the subject: Russian-speaking swindler Anna Sorokina (Delvi) even from prison was able to pull off a scam: the victim lost $ 8000

She also warned Sorokina's new lawyers not to "demean" her name if they didn't want her to retaliate.

Thomas says that Sorokina owes her money. But Levine claims she still hasn't submitted an invoice to his client despite repeated requests. And she was fired for "lack of meaningful legal work" in the case, according to the lawsuit.

After Thomas was fired, she called Sorokin an ungrateful creature.

Thomas hired attorney Richard Grayson, who told Sorokin's legal team in an email dated May 13 that his client would be out of the country indefinitely due to an airstrike in Jamaica. “She doesn’t know when she can get a plane ticket to return to the US,” he wrote.

“She literally took the file and ran off with it,” Duncan said.

Thomas has his own legal problems. For example, an arrest in 2020 and a charge of grand theft in Queens. She embezzled more than $200 from a client she represented in a real estate deal, court documents show.

Her relationship with Thomas began to sour by September last year. “You literally call me every day asking the same questions,” Tomas Sorokina wrote in an email on September 2, 2021. “Please stop dumping all the unnecessary emotional stress you are experiencing on me. I am a great lawyer because I am far from emotional.”

The lawyer has her own personal endeavors, including the release of a book titled “FAT NUH MEK IT: The JAMAICAN AMERICAN'S GUIDE TO SELF-ACTUALIZATION,” according to a post on her Twitter page.

“This case is just one example of people who took advantage of Anna for selfish reasons,” said spokeswoman Judah Engelmeier. – More information coming soon. And people will understand that Anna was used, she became a victim.”

As ForumDaily New York previously wrote, currently Sorokina is in immigration detention. She served time in prison for her scams and is now facing deportation. The woman has German citizenship and Russian roots.

Fraudulent adventures Sorokina attracted a lot of attention in New York. Her story was in the spotlight Netflix series “Inventing Anna”.

Brief history of the scammer:

In 2019, Sorokin was sentenced to between four and 12 years on charges of grand larceny and for impersonating the scion of a wealthy German family with a net worth of 60 million euros. She used the pseudonym Anna Delvi to try to get a $22 million bank loan to open a Manhattan art club.

Good behavior earned her an early release in February 2021.

But her freedom was short-lived. After six weeks of flaunting her popularity on social media, countless interviews, and walking around New York with a personal videographer, ICE arrested her for overstaying her visa.

Sorokina did not allow the prison to weaken her presence on social networks. She has 1 million followers on Instagram. She even organized an art exhibition from behind bars.