Todd Spodek, Anna Delvey’s defense attorney had a hefty job on his hands when he took on the case of the suspected fraudster. During the trail, Spodek concentrated his argument on a flawed American system that exploited those tempted by wealth and glamour. Sorokin was accused of defrauding hotels, restaurants and a number of banks, to what amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Delvey maintained that her unpleasant circumstances were a result of a poorly executed buissness venture. Spodek likened Anna to any buissness woman of humble origins who wanted to make a name for herself in New York city (it isn’t called the American dream for nothing of course). Believing Delvey’s intentions to be pure, Spodek famously quoted the lyrics to the hit classic, ‘New York, New York’, by Frank Sinatra during the trial and compared Sorokin to the singer, ‘Sinatra made a great new start here in New York, as did Ms. Sorokin’, Spodek suggested, per The New York Times, ‘they both created a golden opportunity’. Despite the laywers efforts and creative line of argument, Delvey was convicted in 2019. The faux heiress was fined $24,000, ordered to pay just under $200,000 in restitution, and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Delvey’s legal representative is played by actor Arian Moayed, who also stars as Stewy Hosseini, a successful private equity investor, in HBO’s Succession.
