Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist known as the 'fake heiress', claims she has received hundreds of death threats after being accused of abandoning two bunnies used as props in a New York photoshoot. The 34-year-old, who was convicted of grand larceny in 2019 for defrauding banks, hotels, and friends, posted images on Instagram last week showing her posing with the rabbits on red leashes.
Following the photoshoot, the bunnies were reportedly seen roaming in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Sorokin, who has 1.1 million Instagram followers, said she has been bombarded with death threats and harassing messages. 'I am deeply alarmed by the death threats and hundreds of vile, harassing messages flooding my social media,' she wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
Sorokin served nearly four years in prison and an additional 18 months in immigration detention for overstaying her US visa. She is currently under house arrest and required to wear an ankle monitor. She denies involvement in the logistics of the photoshoot, claiming she only agreed to pose for photographer Jasper Egan Soloff. His lawyer, however, disputed this, stating Soloff was hired to take photos and had no knowledge of how the bunnies were obtained or what happened to them afterwards.
Blogger Terry Chao, who spotted one of the rabbits in Prospect Park, told the New York Times that the bunnies were used as props and then dumped. Sorokin shared screenshots suggesting a person named Christian Batty abandoned the rabbits. Batty apologised in a now-deleted Instagram post, admitting he panicked and released the rabbits mistakenly believing they would survive. Sorokin has since donated $1,000 to All About Rabbits Rescue, a nonprofit that confirmed receipt of the donation.
