Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix
Lisa McLoughlin
Since Inventing Anna’s release on Netflix last week, many have drawn comparisons between the series, based on true events, and crime documentary The Tinder Swindler on social media.
But now viewers are insisting there’s "double standards" over the jail sentences Anna Delvey, real name Sorkin, and Simon Leviev received as a result of their similar crimes.
The Russian-born German socialite famously posed as a wealthy heiress, scamming banks, hotels and rich acquaintances out of hundreds of thousands of dollars before eventually being jailed.
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Anna was arrested on October 3, 2017 in a sting operation. She appeared in New York City Criminal Court in December 2018, and a trial was set for March 2019.
Prosecutors accused her of stealing £202,000. She was found guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny and theft of services.
For these crimes she was sentenced four to 12 years in prison, fined $24,000 (£17,677) and ordered to pay restitution of around $199,000 (£146,570).
Last February, she was released from prison for a short period but was taken back into custody for overstaying her visa. She remains there and is awaiting deportation back to Germany.
While Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev, an Israeli man who changed his name, so it sounded as if he was related to a famed (and hugely rich) diamond oligarch, committed the ultimate romance fraud.
After dating a woman for a short while, he’d explain that he was in danger, send videos of his ‘bodyguard’ bleeding, and tell his girlfriends that he needed to use a credit card in someone else’s name so he couldn’t be tracked by his "enemies".
His girlfriends sent credit cards, took out loans and lines of credit, and even flew suitcases of withdrawn cash to him, expecting the billionaire to be able to pay them back.
However, Simon was using each woman’s money to fund his next date, leaving his previous lover penniless and alone.
Simon was caught in 2019 after he was found using a fake passport in Greece, seeing him extradited to Israel.
And after he was convicted of theft, fraud, and forgery of documents in Israel, Simon received a hefty fine… of 15 months in prison and was in fact released after serving just four months.
In light of the shows hitting Netflix at the same time, viewers have now weighed in on the disparity of jail time Anna received for her crimes compared to Simon, who reportedly swindled £7.4million ($10million) out of his victims.
Many have insisted that it's ‘misogynistic’ that the Tinder Swindler received far less for his crimes when he’s left so many women out of pocket while Anna’s victims have received their restitution and then some.
One penned on Twitter: “Inventing Anna, Anna Delvey is in prison for scamming rich people but #tinderswindler is out and about living the high life after scamming how many women across continents! This is Misogyny!!! #freeanna".
Another wrote: “Everyone watch Inventing Anna on Netflix and tell me there’s not a double standard against that Tinder Swindler.
“Anna went to Rikers Island, and the tinder swindler walked FREE. This is crazy folks."
“She conned the NY elite (most of which got their $$ back and then some), and got sent to prison, meanwhile T.S conned vulnerable women, and got to walk free…???” they added.
“R u f**king kidding me?! T.S took home more $$ at the E.O.D!!”.
A third questioned: “How is the girl from ‘Inventing Anna’ in jail but the ‘Tinder Swindler’ is not?”
Viewers have raised an interesting point…
Inventing Anna and The Tinder Swindler are available to stream now on Netflix.