Anna Sorokin—the fake German heiress who used the name “Anna Delvey” to defraud an estimated $275,000 from hotels, friends, and banks—is now reportedly facing a lawsuit from her former lawyer. 

Sorokin hired Audrey A. Thomas in 2020 to help her in an immigration case and to appeal her conviction, Insider reported citing documents from the lawsuit. In April 2022, Sorokin fired Thomas. However, Sorokin has failed to deliver payment on more than $152,000 in legal services. 

Thomas says her former client 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 stated.

It is not clear what those false allegations were. Thomas and Sorokin did not respond to Robb Report inquiries. 

New York Post has reported that Thomas herself faces criminal prosecution after being accused of stealing from an elderly client. She was disbarred over the incident in November. The complaint stated that the disbarment “was not related to the facts or circumstances that gave rise to this lawsuit.” 

Sorokin’s four-year con allowed her to enjoy to live at luxury hotels and frequent New York City’s elite social circles. She was convicted in 2019 of grand larceny and theft of services. She served nearly four years in prison and is currently under house arrest in an East Village apartment, according to Insider. Her story was depicted in the Netflix series Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner.

Earlier this year, CBS News reported that Sorokin will launch a podcast called “The Anna Delvey Show.” Sorokin says in a trailer for the Audio Up and Reunion Audio production: “You might recognize my name as a character in a Netflix series, but now, you get to meet the real me.” She added that the show “will dive into the concept of rules and talk with the people who create or break them, from art, politics, fashion, tech, finance, law and more.”

Police on Tuesday searched the offices and homes of a former Italian premier and several leading business executives in an investigation of alleged corruption involving the sale of military planes, ships and submarines to Colombia, Italian state television reported.

Massimo D’Alema, a leftist politician who served as Italian premier from 1998 to 2000, is among those reported to be under investigation.

The sales deal, said to be worth 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), has been under scrutiny for some time. Last year, a top Italian CEO, Alessandro Profumo, told the Senate defense commission that D’Alema had no role in the dealings for the sale on behalf of Leonardo, a major Italian aerospace and defense manufacturer.

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Italian state television, citing Naples-based prosecutors, said that Profumo is among prominent business figures under investigation. Profumo’s mandate as CEO of Leonardo ended last month.

Neither Profumo nor D’Alema could be reached for comment on Tuesday. Italian state television quoted D’Alema’s lawyers as saying that the investigation would back their client’s denial, in recent months, of any wrongdoing.

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Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that the investigation looked into initiatives to sell M-346 jets, an advanced military training aircraft manufactured by Leonardo, and corvettes, which are fast naval vessels, and small submarines produced by Fincantieri, a major Italian shipbuilder.

Four Colombians, including a former foreign minister, were among others being investigated, Corriere della Sera said. The former minister who was identified in the Italian news reports as Marta Lucía Ramírez, who also served as vice president, tweeted that she was “not involved in the purchasing of military equipment.” She said that the Colombian Embassy handled the purchases with the defense ministries of both countries.

Naples prosecutors’ offices were closed Tuesday evening, and officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment on the Italian news reports.

Government cites ‘national security’ as it moves to ban popular Glory to Hong Kong song, from the 2019 protests.

Hong Kong has gone to court to ban the song Glory to Hong Kong, which became the unofficial anthem of the 2019 mass protests and has been played in error at several sporting events since instead of China’s national anthem.

Hong Kong’s Department of Justice said it had applied for the court order to ban the performance, broadcast, sale or distribution of the song – including on the internet – on national security grounds because it had been “mistakenly presented” as the territory’s national anthem “repeatedly”.

As a Chinese territory, Hong Kong does not have its own national anthem but China’s March of the Volunteers.

“This has not only insulted the national anthem but also caused serious damage to the country and the HKSAR,” it said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to Hong Kong’s official name – the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The court order would mean anyone engaging with the song could be prosecuted for “secession” under the National Security Law, which was imposed in 2020, or the colonial-era sedition law.

The composer of Glory to Hong Kong remains anonymous but the Cantonese-language song emerged as a rallying call during the 2019 protests with the lyrics “break now the dawn, liberate our Hong Kong; in common breath, revolution of our times”, which echoed the protesters calls for change.

The song was played for a perplexed Hong Kong team at a rugby tournament in South Korea last November. It was also played at an international ice hockey match and at an Asian powerlifting event.

Sarah Brooks, the head of Amnesty International’s China team, called the latest move “absurd”.

“The Hong Kong government must end its increasingly fervent crackdown on freedom of expression,” Brooks said in a statement. “A song is not a threat to national security, and national security may not be used as an excuse to deny people the right to express different political views.”

The Hong Kong authorities have also called on Google to remove Glory to Hong Kong from its search results but the technology firm has refused to comply.