Anna “Delvey” Sorokin says that she received hundreds of death threats since she was accused of releasing pet rabbits with which she posed for a photo shoot in a park in Brooklyn.
The fake German heiress, who stole tens of thousands of dollars from banks, posed on the streets of the Posh -Tribeca district of Manhattan last week. The rabbits were recognized and discovered days later in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, which led to violent online counter -reactions.
But the headline in New York City, which vehemently denied responsibility for the rabbit thrown away, said that it was particularly shocked by the strong reaction to the incident.
“It just seems to me that everything I do is just wrong,” said Sorokin. “I can never do these people right.”
Sorokin shared screenshots of dozens of hated news that she has received on her Instagram in the past few days – which she described “unusable”. Some of them suggest that they Should be killed or life, including one who advises Sorokin to get someone to “turn your skin out of your skin”.
“It seems as if many of these people just because they are busy with animal rescue, feel like they are insulting or talking to them or saying something because they hide behind this thing that they do,” she said.
The 34-year-old, whose life was portrayed in Netflix 'Hit 2022 series “Inventing Anna”, took the photos on August 3 with the rabbits to create content for Instagram, where it has more than 1.1 million followers.
Shortly before filming, she asked if one of her followers in the metropolitan area of New York City had a pet rabbit that she could borrow, said Sorokin.
Christian Batty, a 19-year-old hairdresser Sorokin, met briefly last year, stretched out his hand and offered what he called a friend, she said.
Sorokin added that she paid Batty to provide the rabbits and that his owner back to her owner in Yonkers – or something, she thought. A screenshot of a Uber receipt that shared Sorokin with NBC News shows that the decline in the trip south of Prospect Park was where the rabbits were later discovered.
Days later she said she started receiving news on social media about the rabbits in Prospect Park. A Facebook user has posted pictures of the domesticated rabbit in the park to a public Facebook group who connected rabbits, House Rabbit Society and other users with Sorokins photos.
Sorokin initially believed that the contributions were fake, but the flood of news did not stop.
Initially, according to the screenshots of text messages between Sorokin, Batty and photographer Jasper Soloff, Batty refused the rabbits. Sorokin posted this news in her Instagram story.
“Jasper had no knowledge or entries about how the rabbits were done with them after the photo shoot,” said the lawyer of Soloff, Gary Adelman, in a statement.
BATY did not give back a request for comment.
Hours later, Batty said that he took off the rabbits and freed Sorokin from any participation, according to an explanation that he published on his Instagram account, which has been decreased since then.
“When I realized that the rabbits were handed over to me, I panicked,” said Batty in the explanation, whose screenshots made available from Sorokin. “At 19, without experience with animals, without an animal -friendly apartment and without knowing the available resources, I felt overwhelmed and hit the worst choice.”
“I wrongly believed that there were existing rabbits in this area, and released them there and thought that it was my best option,” he added.
Sorokin pushed back the idea that Batty's age was a problem.
“He is old enough to move to New York and live alone. He should have enough common sense to deal with rabbits,” said Sorokin. “We don't ask him to do something that requires a high IQ from him.”
Sorokin said she was concerned about how the incident could affect her upcoming immigration.
Sorokin was convicted by a jury in Manhattan in April 2019 for four cases of theft services, three cases of great theft and a county of attempted great theft after being accused of cheating on banks and friends of tens of thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors said that they had convinced friends and companies to borrow their money to afford a wasteful lifestyle, under the guise that she was the daughter of an oil baron or a diplomat worth millions of dollars.
In 2021 Sorokin was released on probation and fights against deportation. She had to wear an electronic ankle monitor and cannot leave a 75-mile radius of house arrest in New York.
“This time I didn't do anything wrong,” she said. “And I had the best intentions and it's really frustrating.”
The New York Times reported That the rabbits were saved by bloggers Terry Chao, who discovered the animals in the park. Chao could not be reached immediately for a comment.
Sorokin said that after the scandal she donated $ 1,000 of everything about rabbit rescues. She also denied to damage the rabbits by placing them on the lines, as some suggested online.
“I don't know, I'm not a rabbit professional. I didn't know that the lines were such a big deal,” she said. “We would put them down a minute or two that I don't know, take a photo and pick them up. We didn't go. And they seemed to be happy.”