The internet has been abuzz about Shonda Rhimes' limited series Inventing Anna which recently premiered on Netflix. Starring Ozark star Julia Garner, the show follows the life of scammer Anna Delvey whose real name is Anna Sorokin. She famously faked her way into New York's elite society by posing as a German heiress. She headlined 2019's Scam Season alongside Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland who was her roommate at one point.
Sorokin met her downfall when her former friend Rachel DeLoache Williams sued her for an unpaid $60,000 debt after a lavish trip to Morocco. In 2019, though she wasn't found guilty of Williams' charges, Sorokin was convicted for defrauding banks, hotels, restaurants, and a private jet operator out of over $200,000. As the series depicted, she was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Here's where she is these days.
Is Anna Sorokin Still In Jail?
Yes and no. In February 2021, Sorokin was released on parole due to good behavior. She'd served three years of her four-to-12-year sentence. A remorseful Sorokin attended a parole hearing in October 2020 — a full 180 after saying she wasn't sorry for anything in 2019. "I just want to say that I'm really ashamed and I'm really sorry for what I did," she apologized in the hearing. "I completely understand that a lot of people suffered when I thought I was not doing anything wrong."
Sorokin also described her time in prison as "therapeutic." When asked about her activities back there, she answered: "Culinary arts, I did a lot of yoga and meditation and participated in a debate project." Spoken like a truly changed woman, right? But a month later, she was arrested again. This time, by the immigration authorities for overstaying her visa. She was set to be deported on March 26, 2021. But the fake heiress filed an application for relief. To this day, Sorokin remains in ICE custody.
"I am here because Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided that my early merit release from prison means nothing to them and, despite being perfectly self-sufficient when left to my own (legal) devices, I, in fact, present 'a continuous danger to the community,'" she wrote in an essay for Insider. "Apparently, Daily Mail headlines are admissible evidence that override the decisions of the New York State Board of Parole and can be used to back up the Department of Homeland Security's arguments that instead of getting a job, I was 'busy getting my hair done' — me and my bad ways."
What Does Anna Sorokin Do Now?
Sorokin did pay her debts after her trial. "While I was in prison, I paid off the restitution from my criminal case in full to the banks I took money from," she wrote in her essay. "I also accomplished more in the six weeks they deemed were long enough for me to remain free than some people have in the past two years," However, she argues that her visa overstay wasn't her fault.
"My visa overstay was unintentional and largely out of my control. I served my prison sentence, but I'm appealing my criminal conviction to clear my name," she explained. "I did not break a single one of New York state's or ICE's parole rules. Despite all that, I've yet to be given a clear and fair path to compliance." For the record, Sorokin feels "special" being in ICE custody these days. "Did I mention I'm the only woman in ICE custody in this whole jail?" she wrote. "Tell me I'm special without telling me I'm special."
However, that doesn't mean she's letting ICE decide her fate. Following the release of Inventing Anna, Sorokin posted an Instagram Story, saying that she's looking for a lawyer who could help with her case. Kanye West's controversial girlfriend Julia Fox even shared her Story.
What Does Anna Sorokin Think About 'Inventing Anna'?
Sorokin isn't too excited about the series. She was hoping that by the time it came out, she would have already moved on. "Nearly four years in the making and hours of phone conversations and visits later, the show is based on my story and told from a journalist's perspective," she wrote. "And while I'm curious to see how they interpreted all the research and materials provided, I can't help but feel like an afterthought, the somber irony of being confined to a cell at yet another horrid correctional facility lost between the lines, the history repeating itself."
