- Anna Sorokin's ex-lawyer filed a complaint claiming she cheated her out of $152,000 in service fees.
- Audrey A. Thomas said Sorokin filed false allegations against her to the grievance committee.
Anna Sorokin, who posed as a German heiress under the name "Anna Delvey," cheated her attorney out of more than $152,000 in legal services, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit submitted on Tuesday.
Sorokin hired lawyer Audrey A. Thomas in 2020 to represent her in her immigration case and to help her appeal her criminal conviction of having defrauded an estimated $275,000 from hotels, friends, and banks, the lawsuit said.
The elaborate four-year scam allowed Sorokin to live a luxurious lifestyle amid New York's high society, which eventually led to her arrest and subsequent conviction in 2019. She was released from incarceration in 2021 and is currently under house arrest in her East Village apartment.
In the complaint, Sorokin's lawyer argues that the fake heiress lied to get out of paying "astronomical legal fees" by filing false allegations against her to the grievance committee.
"The false statements by [Sorokin] against Plaintiffs' interest were made for the sole purpose of causing injury to Plaintiffs and to damage Plaintiffs' reputation and standing, in the community," the complaint said.
It is unclear exactly what the false allegations are. Thomas did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Thomas herself is facing criminal prosecution after she was accused of stealing money from an elderly client several years ago, The New York Post reported. As a result, she was disbarred in November last year.
The disbarment "was not related to the facts or circumstances that gave rise to this lawsuit," Thomas said in her complaint.
The lawyer also said that Sorokin was well aware of her legal troubles when they started their attorney-client relationship, adding: "Anna actually told me that she hired me because she believed that if anyone would fight for her I would because I know what it is like to be wrongfully accused and publicly shamed."
Sorokin fired Thomas in April 2022. She took her to court last year, claiming the lawyer hadn't returned court records to help her fight her deportation case in an appeals court, Law & Crime reported.
"[Thomas] is trying to get as much as she can out of being associated with me and my story," Sorokin told The New York Post at the time.
Sorokin did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.