What Happened To Todd Spodek From The Anna Sorokin Case?

Attorney Todd Spodek rose to prominence for his work representing convicted con artist Anna Sorokin (also known as Anna Delvey), who managed to convince New York City's elite that she was a wealthy heiress — and used that identity to parlay her pretend fortune as a way into New York society, per The New York Times. In addition to exploiting her society friends financially, she lived in swanky hotels that she couldn't afford, ate expensive meals she couldn't pay for, and even convinced banks to give her money in order to purportedly fund her vision for an arts organization.

Spodek became involved in Sorokin's legal case after she was arrested in 2017. While serving as her attorney for her 2019 trial, Spodek argued Sorokin was not guilty of the financial crimes she was accused of because she fully intended to pay everyone back (via Insider). The jury wasn't swayed by this, convicting her on several charges of larceny in 2019, per The New York Times. And inadvertently, the media attention surrounding the Anna Sorokin/Anna Delvey case made Spodek somewhat of a celebrity himself.

Throughout Anna Sorokin's trial in 2019, many covering and following the story of the so-called "Soho Grifter" found her attorney Todd Spodek to be uniquely colorful — even alongside Sorokin herself. One example of this pertained to Spodek's decision to kick off Sorokin's defense with the song lyrics to the famous Frank Sinatra "New York, New York" to help illustrate how Sorokin, per Spodek's perspective, wanted to "make a brand new start" for herself in Manhattan. As the New York Post reported at the time, Spodek expressed the similarities he perceived between the legendary singer and the fake heiress. "Anna had to kick down the door to get her chance at life," explained Spodek in his opening statement. "Just like Sinatra had to do it his way, Anna had to do it her way."

In that vein, Spodek presented Sorokin as a young woman with "moxie" rather than a hardened con artist, per The New York Times. "Through her sheer ingenuity, she created the life that she wanted." Spodek encouraged the jury to see themselves in the defendant's drive and determination, telling them "There's a little bit of Anna in all of us." (Unfortunately for Spodek and his client, Sorokin was found guilty of multiple grand larceny charges in 2019, but was released from prison in February 2021; as of this report, she is once again incarcerated while fighting deportation from the U.S., per Insider.)

The Anna Sorokin trial might have concluded in 2019, but as many might already be aware, the story of the fake heiress persona she created has yet to subside. The case experienced yet another new wave of interest in 2022 with the release of the Netflix miniseries "Inventing Anna." The show drew upon the 2018 New York magazine article "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" by writer Jessica Pressler — the same article which made Sorokin (then Anna Delvey) a household name. In "Inventing Anna," Julia Garner played Sorokin, and actor Arian Moayed (pictured right) played none other than a version of the real-life Todd Spodek (pictured left), per Vulture. 

In a February 2022 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Moayed spoke of how he was able to meet Spodek during production and how that, along with reading actual transcripts from the trial, heavily influenced his portrayal of the attorney. "I was just fascinated by the charisma of the actual Todd," Moayed explained. In his own way, however, Spodek wasn't entirely a stranger to the filmmaking process. In 2021, he appeared in an episode of the HBO documentary series "Generation Hustle," during which he discussed his involvement in the Sorokin case (via the Wall Street Journal).

After the 2022 debut of "Inventing Anna," Todd Spodek soon found himself associated with another high-profile case. According to a March 2022 report by The New York Times, Spodek was hired to represent a juror involved in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. (For the uninitiated, Maxwell had been charged in July 2020 for her role in the sexual abuse scandal involving the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, per The Guardian.)

Spodek's involvement in the case occurred after Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and other several other charges. According to the New York Times, Spodek's client, known only as Juror 50, told his fellow jurors about the sexual abuse he had experienced in the past –- a fact that he failed to disclose during the jury selection process. After the trial, the juror shared with the press that he had discussed the abuse he had once suffered among his fellow members of the jury. This revelation led Maxwell's team to question whether she had really received a fair trial, though the courts ultimately ruled that she had, as The New York Times later reported.

In addition to working on headline-grabbing criminal cases, Spodek also represents clients in need of family law assistance. He has handled cases related to child custody and support as well as divorce through his practice, Spodek Law Group, per Newsweek. As of this writing, Spodek lives with his family in Brooklyn, according to the official site for Spodek's law firm.