Anna Delvey’s former lawyer still in hospital, wants to delay $1,000 daily fines

Anna Sorokina’s former lawyer is trying to delay a $1,000-a-day fine issued against her in a lawsuit filed by a fake heiress because she is still in the hospital after she collapsed in court during a medical episode last week.

Audrey Thomas collapsed on the floor during a hearing in a Manhattan court on Friday over a lawsuit filed by Sorokina accusing her former disbarred lawyer of hiding legal documents.

“My heart hurts! I need an ambulance! … I can not breathe!” Thomas let out a sob before she was wheeled out on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

After that, the hearing resumed, and Manhattan Superior Court Judge Arthur Engoron issued Thomas a $1,000 daily fine, which began accumulating on Wednesday — and continued until she either handed over Sorokina’s remaining court records or explained where they had gone. .

But on Tuesday, Thomas’s attorney, Robert Neer, asked the judge to delay the fines from going into effect until March 30 as his client is still in the hospital. Nir also outlined the steps he took to help get recordings for Sorokina — aka Anna Delvey, the heroine of Netflix’s Inventing Anna.

“Thomas is still in the hospital and it is reported that after her discharge, she will receive at least six weeks of daily physical therapy to address the physical deficit caused by the health problems she faced on March 10,” Nier wrote to the judge. .

“I submit that in light of my client’s ongoing hospitalization, she will not be able to take any steps to avoid a $1,000 sanction imposed by this court on March 10, 2023, due to begin on March 15, 2023,” Nir. – according to court documents, which included photographs of Thomas in a hospital bed.

Before the dramatic scene in the courtroom, Thomas asked Engoron to postpone her contempt hearing, stating that she could not represent herself in the case due to health issues. Her lawyer was unable to appear in court due to a broken ankle.

Engoron denied a request from Thomas, who told the court that her blood pressure had skyrocketed as she learned she was in contempt of court.

Sorokina, 32, filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Thomas did not return audio recordings of her immigration hearings, her immigration and customs clearance and parole papers, files from her original criminal defense attorney, and personal items including headphones and sunglasses. glasses.

Sorokina’s lawyer, Duncan Levin, told Engoron that his client has been waiting for more than a year to receive the documents, and she needs them to help fight an appeal against her criminal charge – for stealing $200,000 from banks and businesses – and fight her deportation.

The “Soho Fraudster” – known by her pseudonym Delvi, a German heiress with a net worth of 60 million euros – was under house arrest with a GPS monitor on her ankle while awaiting her deportation case. She previously served four years in prison following a criminal conviction in 2019.

“Anna Sorokina has been locked in her apartment for six months without moving, waiting for various legal issues to fall into place,” Sorokina’s spokeswoman Judah Engelmeier told The Post.

“This has gone on for far too long and just as we should empathize with and care for Ms Thomas’s medical needs, we are focused on Anna’s need to move on, appeal her sentence and resolve her immigration case,” Engelmeier said. “Had it been considered and handled properly when it came up the first few times, neither Ms. Thomas nor Ms. Sorokin would have ended up in the situation they are in now.”

Nir declined to comment.