Convicted fraudster Anna Sorokin may soon be deported from the United States, as federal authorities argue she 'has made a mockery of the United States court system.' Sorokin, 35, a Russian native who once posed as a German heiress named 'Anna Delvey,' entered the US on a tourist visa in 2017. She failed to leave the country when that expired and instead posed as a German heiress to gain social status.
She then became a 'criminal illegal alien,' when she defrauded a series of banks, hotels, and individuals out of $275,000, according to the New York Post. Federal authorities now say they are pushing to deport her back to her native Germany. 'For years, she has made a mockery of the United States court system and its immigration laws. She has been released on an ankle monitor while her appeal of removal is heard,' a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the Post. 'We look forward to sending her home soon,' the spokesperson added.
Background and Rise to Notoriety
Sorokin grew up in a working-class suburb of Moscow, the daughter of a truck driver whose mother ran a small convenience store. The family emigrated to Germany when she was 16. She did not have a college degree or a substantial amount of wealth. However, in 2013, Sorokin traveled to New York City to attend New York Fashion Week and ultimately stayed, pretending to be 'Anna Delvey' — an heiress with a $60 million trust fund in Europe — as she scammed her way to expensive trips and hotel stays, ripping off her best friend along the way.
Arrests and Conviction
She was first arrested in July 2017, A&E reports, after she skipped out on thousands of dollars in unpaid bills at two New York City hotels — the Beekman and the W New York — and dined and dashed after eating lunch at Le Parker Meridien hotel. Sorokin was scheduled to appear in court in September that year but never showed up. A few months later, in October, the Manhattan District Attorney set up a sting operation with the Los Angeles Police Department and arrested her again. According to the indictment, City National Bank allowed Sorokin to overdraft her account by $100,000. She managed to keep $55,000 in the account but 'frittered away these funds on personal expenses in about one month's time' with fancy hotel stays, high-end fashion purchases and sessions with a personal trainer.
In 2019, she was convicted of second-degree larceny, theft of services and first-degree attempted larceny. She was acquitted of the most serious charge — attempted grand larceny in the first degree, in connection with a $22 million loan she tried to obtain from City National Bank. She was also acquitted of stealing from her friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, who worked in the photo department of Vanity Fair magazine and was scammed out of $62,000. The two, and a group of other friends, went on a $7,000-a-night villa trip to Morocco in 2017. Sorokin had vowed to pay for the trip but never did.
Sentencing and Release
For her crimes, Sorokin was sentenced to four to 12 years behind bars — but she was released early, in February 2021. Six weeks later, though, after bragging in a TV interview that 'crime pays, in a way,' she was once again arrested by immigration agents for allegedly overstaying her visa. Sorokin then faced deportation in March 2022, but was released from ICE custody in October of that year and placed under electronic monitoring.
In the years since, Delvey has continued to appear at major events showing off her ankle monitor — which she would sometimes bedazzle — and has even appeared on Dancing with the Stars. At the same time, Netflix paid the fraudster $320,000 for the rights to tell her story in the show 'Inventing Anna.' However, the fake heiress was unable to watch the docuseries about her life when it came out, as she was still behind bars at the time. She then told the Daily Mail she wanted to tell her own story. 'I'm the only person who can tell my story. No one else was with me the whole time, when all those things were happening,' Sorokin said at the time.
Current Projects and Future Plans
She is now putting together a memoir and her own companion documentary chronicling her past and present, which she told TMZ will start long before she was caught up in the fake heiress scandal. Sorokin said a 'significant part' of her memoir has already been developed, as she noted that she is not trying to make it 'another "crime story" packaged for entertainment.' Instead, she said her memoir would explore themes including 'media, perception, ambition, reputation and the economics of attention.' 'There's this assumption that life freezes at the moment the Internet decides who you are, but in reality, you still have to keep evolving while everyone else keeps projecting an outdated version of you onto the screen,' she said. Sorokin added that she believes she is now 'rebuilding my life in spite of my past, not because of it.' The Daily Mail has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
