I want to be a part of it, New York, New York

With the exception of the fraud currently occupying the White House, and the trove of grifters he’s related to and associated with, I love a great imposter story.

There was Ferdinand Waldo DeMara, a fellow from Massachusetts, who throughout his career ran up a pretty impressive string of impersonations: monk (Trappist and Benedictine), Marine, prison warden, psychologist, MD, college professor. In the movie based on this exploits, The Great Imposter, Tony Curtis played DeMara. Most entertaining.

Then there was Frank Abagnale, who as a kid between the ages of 15-21 was a check kiter who impersonated a doctor, a lawyer, and an airline pilot. His saga was told in Catch Me If You Can, and he got to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Abagnale went straight and became a very successful consultant on fraud prevention. Who better.

Unlike DeMara and Abagnale, some folks don’t branch out and pretend to be in different professions. They just run a single con.

One day, about 10 years ago, I walked out my front door and saw a lot of commotion a few doors down. The FBI was looking for “Clark Rockefeller”, a conman who got by pretending to be a Rockefeller. (He even managed to con a pretty smart cookie – HBS grad, I believe – into marrying and having a baby with him.)

And then there was the fellow who buzzed around glitzy Manhattan society pretending to be Sidney Poitier’s son.

In this latter category – those running a great pretender con, but not actually trying to palm themselves off as someone with knowledge, skills, and ability, falls Anna Sorokin.

Anna came on the Manhattan scene in her early twenties, pretending to be a German heiress, and duping people into paying her way, lending her money, letting her stay for free in pricey hotels until her heire$$ money could make it to the States, etc.

After high-flying around for nearly a year – trips to Marrakech and to Omaha (for the Berkshire-Hathaway annual with Warren B) – Sorokin landed in the fairly unpleasant precincts of Riker’s Island. And now she’s in court, charged with swindling “friends, banks and hotels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a taste of the high life in Manhattan.”

Before pulling a modest beige turtleneck over her ensemble, Sorokin showed up for the first day of her trial wearing a fairly low-cut fashionista dress, which will give you a tiny hint about the wiles she used to pull her con off.

Anyway, her lawyer offered something of a Twinkie-defense for her:

In his opening statement, her attorney Todd Spodek quoted from a number of Frank Sinatra's famous tracks to argue that his client was 'just trying to make it' in New York and 'wanted to create a life for herself.'

…Spodek told the court: 'Sinatra said, "I will make a brand new start in New York, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere" because the opportunities in New York are endless.

'Anna had to kick down the door to get her chance at life. Just like Sinatra had to do it his way, Anna had to do it her way,' he said of the Russian-born woman who tried to pass herself off as a German heiress with a fortune of $60 million.  (Source: AP, via Daily Mail UK – yes, I’m embarrassed to say, I do occasionally read it.)

O-kay…

I guess we have different definitions of ‘just trying to make it.’ Mine involve things like getting an education, developing your skills, having a job. Those sorts of boring things.

And while there’s plenty of evidence that Frank Sinatra could be a Mafia-loving, sleazy POS, he had plenty of talent and he worked at it. Sure, he did it his way, but not, as far as I know, conning people out of money or pretending to be something he wasn’t.

But Spodek insisted that all Sorokin was trying to do was to receive the same opportunities afforded to the rich.

Well, wouldn’t we all like the “same opportunities afforded to the rich.” But, guess what? That’s life. And as the recent college admissions scandal is showing us, sometimes the rich don’t even get away with the opportunities afforded to them. So there.

'Through her sheer ingenuity, she created a life she wanted for herself,' the attorney said, as Sorokin expressionless sat at the defense table.

Sheer ingenuity? That’s one way to look at it.  How about sheer brazen dishonesty? Sheer ability to “read” her audience and figure out what people want to hear. Nobody’s going to front hundreds of thousands of dollars to the “nothing” daughter of a German truck-driver, which is what Sorokin turns out to be. But an heiress? Now you’re talking. I guess that is pretty sheer and pretty ingenious. (And, sorry, but I really don’t have a ton of sympathy for those she’s duped.)

'Unorthodox, possibly unethical, but this is the life she’s chosen to live.'

And now it’s likely that “the life she’s chosen to live” is going to end her up in the Big House.

As for that slinky black dress? Hey, orange is still the new black, isn’t it?