The fake German heiress Anna Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, has lived many lives in her 30 years. She’s been a Russian immigrant, a fashion student, a New York socialite, an arts and culture entrepreneur, a Rikers Island inmate, a well-heeled, celebrity defendant, a convicted felon, and the inspiration behind the Netflix juggernaut Inventing Anna. Next up: resident of Germany.
The Netflix original series depicts the rapid rise and even steeper descent of Sorokin who spent years galavanting across Manhattan, living in boutique hotels, dining at expensive restaurants, and leaving a trail of suspicious, six-figure IOUs in her wake. She survived off of bounced checks and fake wire transfers until 2017 when she was arrested in a sting operation outside the entrance of an upscale rehab facility in Malibu, California on charges of grand larceny and theft. The jig was up. In May 2019, a jury convicted Sorokin on a handful of grand larceny and theft services charges. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, rebranded as inmate #19G0366, and shipped up to Albion Correctional Facilities in upstate New York.
Read on for the latest on her real life whereabouts.
When was Anna Sorokin released from prison?
Let’s cut right to the chase: No, Anna Sorokin is not still in prison. At least, not the same prison she was in when she was first sentenced back in 2019. Sorokin was released from there on parole in February 2021, after serving three years in her four-to-12-year sentence. The reason for her early release? Good behaviour.
Immediately after she was released, Sorokin settled her debts. She used a portion of the $320,000 she received from Netflix for the rights to her life story to pay back the $200,000 she owed the banks. She coughed up an additional $25,000 to pay New York state fines. With her debts settled, she checked into the NoMad Hotel in downtown Manhattan and resumed posting glam shots of her post-prison life on Instagram. She gave countless interviews and made a few bold statements about her experience in prison. On Good Morning America, she claimed her time in Rikers was “therapeutic.” She rented an apartment in Manhattan and began promoting a potential new fashion collaboration with former Hood By Air designer Paul Cupo. She checked in with her parole officer regularly. Obviously, she hired a videographer to document her new life.
Unfortunately, it was short-lived.
Why was Anna Sorokin rearrested?
In March 2021, Sorokin was arrested by immigration authorities for overstaying her visa. She had an immigration detainer attached to her name when she was first released from prison, but clearly, she wasn’t in any rush to leave New York. Sorokin was scheduled to be deported back to Germany (Auf Wiedersehen, Anna!) on March 26, but was filing an application for relief, which is essentially legalese for “please don’t make me go back to Germany,” as as a result stayed in custody stateside. Through her lawyer, Audrey Thomas, Sorokin has asked to be granted asylum.
According to court documents reviewed by Esquire, Sorokin applied for asylum based on a “fear of returning to Germany.” Evidently, Sorokin and her family have received numerous threats “due to the media coverage of her crimes” and she fears she will be “retaliated against for embarrassing her country.” Sorokin’s application for asylum was denied in June 2021, but she quickly appealed. Despite her lawyer’s many attempts to get her released on bond while she awaits a final decision on her appeal, Sorokin remained in custody in Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York. She tested positive for COVID-19 in January and spent more than a week in quarantine isolation. “I’m sure I’ll live, but I haven’t been this sick in years,” wrote Sorokin in an article published by Insider.
Did Anna Sorokin Get Deported?
Yes! Late Monday night Sorokin waved a final goodbye to the lawless f*ckin city she once claimed to own and boarded a flight bound to Frankfurt, Germany. According to the New York Post, she was furious about being deported.
Sorokin was determined to stay in New York at all costs. From her cell in Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, N.Y., she fought her deportation for over a year. A few weeks ago she even hired a new lawyer, criminal defence guru Todd Spodek, to replace her immigration lawyer, Audrey Thomas. A hearing for her appeal was scheduled for April 19.
Sorokin's friend, Blake Cummings, told The New York Times he assumed Sorokin was blindsided by the turn of events.“I was chatting with her this morning,” said Cummings, who ran her Instagram account while she was in detention. “She didn’t expect this.”
Despite her deportation, we haven't heard the last of Anna Sorokin. She is scheduled to appear on the podcast “Call Her Daddy” on Wednesday.
Abigail Covington is a journalist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York but originally from North Carolina, whose work has appeared in Slate, The Nation, Oxford American, and Pitchfork
