Anna Delvey reportedly facing potential deportation over mocking conviction after defrauding banks and individuals 

Anna Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, is reportedly facing potential deportation from the United States. A Russian national by birth, the thirty-five year old, had first come to the country on a tourist visa back in 2017, but when that visa ran out, she simply stayed, choosing instead to build an entirely new identity for herself.

That identity was the Anna Delvey persona, the character of a wealthy German heiress that she used to work her way into New York's elite social circles. As per a report shared by the New York Post, the scheme saw her extract a reported total of $275,000 from a mix of banks, hotels, and unsuspecting individuals, a situation which has since led to federal authorities labelling her a criminal illegal alien and seeking her removal to Germany, following a conviction for defrauding banks and individuals.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the New York Post,

"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."

The spokesperson added,

"We look forward to sending her home soon."

How Anna Sorokin built the Anna Delvey lie:

As per a report shared by the Daily Mail, Sorokin's origins were about as far from a sixty-million-dollar European trust fund as one could get. She grew up in a working-class suburb of Moscow, the daughter of a truck driver, while her mother ran a small convenience store. The family relocated to Germany when Sorokin was sixteen years old. She had no college degree and no substantial wealth to speak of.

The pivot came in 2013, when Sorokin traveled to New York City to attend New York Fashion Week and simply never went back. That was where the Anna Delvey character was born, a fictional German heiress with a sixty-million-dollar trust fund parked somewhere in Europe. She used the persona to scam her way into luxury hotel stays and expensive trips, at one point ripping off her own best friend in the process.

Her first arrest came in July 2017, as per a report shared by A&E, after she skipped out on thousands of dollars in unpaid bills at two Manhattan hotels, the Beekman and the W New York, and walked out on a lunch tab at Le Parker Meridien. She was due in court that September but never appeared.

A few months later, in October, the Manhattan District Attorney coordinated a sting operation with the Los Angeles Police Department and brought her in for a second time. The indictment revealed that City National Bank had allowed Sorokin to overdraft her account by $100,000. She had managed to hold onto $55,000 of those funds, but burned through the entire amount in roughly one month, spending it across fancy hotel stays, high-end fashion purchases, and sessions with a personal trainer.

Convicted, released, and back in cuffs: How Anna Delvey kept making headlines

As per the report shared by the Daily Mail, a jury convicted Anna Delvey in 2019 on charges of second-degree larceny, theft of services, and first-degree attempted larceny. That said, she was acquitted of the most serious charge against her, attempted grand larceny in the first degree, which was tied to a twenty-two-million-dollar loan she had 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 at Vanity Fair magazine and had been scammed out of $62,000. The two, along with a group of friends, had taken a trip to Morocco in 2017, staying at a villa that ran $7,000 a night. Anna Delvey had promised to cover the cost and never did.

For those crimes, Anna Delvey was sentenced to between four and twelve years in prison, though she walked free in February 2021, well ahead of her full term. Six weeks after her release, she sat down for a television interview and remarked that "crime pays, in a way," a comment that landed her back in custody almost immediately, this time arrested by immigration agents for allegedly overstaying her visa.

She faced deportation proceedings in March 2022 but was released from ICE custody that October and placed under electronic monitoring. In the years that followed, Sorokin became something of a fixture at major public events, regularly showing up with her ankle monitor on full display, occasionally bedazzled, and even competed on Dancing with the Stars. Meanwhile, Netflix had paid her $320,000 for the rights to tell her story in the series Inventing Anna, though Sorokin was still behind bars when the show was released and could not watch it.

Trending

She later told the Daily Mail she had her own version of events to share.

"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.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback