Where Is Anna Delvey Now? Here’s If She’s Still in Prison For Fraud After ‘Inventing Anna’
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With the release of Inventing Anna, fans still have questions about the fake heiress at the center of its story. The Netflix limited series reveals how this Russian-born German fraudster was caught in her crimes—but where is Anna Delvey now?
Anna Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, first made headlines back in 2018 when she was arrested in New York City for scamming countless individuals, banks and hotels out of over $200,000 while posing as a wealthy German heiress under the Delvey name. At the time, Sorokin’s story was covered by journalist Jessica Pressler in a bombshell article titled “How Anna (Sorokin) Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” in New York Magazine, which went on to serve as the blueprint for Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix adaptation. Since Sorokin’s sentencing in 2019, the con artist’s story has been featured in a forthcoming HBO series by Lena Dunham and in the book My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress, written by her former friend Rachel Williams.
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Rhimes’ series Inventing Anna, which stars the inimitable Julia Garner in the title role, tells the true story of how Sorokin went from a working-class German family to swindling some of New York City’s most prominent socialites all without a real penny to her name. But after watching her journey on the show, the question still remains: Where is Anna Delvey now? For everything we know about where Sorokin is today—including whether or not she’s still behind bars—just keep on reading below.
What happened to Anna Delvey?
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When Anna Sorokin was 19 years old, she left her home country of Germany to pursue a fashion degree in Paris, France. It was here that the future fraudster adopted the surname “Delvey,” later telling The New York Times that it was her mother’s maiden name, despite her parents saying they did not recognize it in the first place. Sorokin’s studies eventually brought her to New York City to attend New York Fashion Week, and after traveling to the city in 2013, she decided to relocate to the Big Apple permanently.
During her time in the city, Sorokin began posing as a wealthy German heiress and using her false identity as Anna Delvey to rub shoulders with socialites and other affluent entities. She created an illusion of wealth by using faulty credit cards, bogus bank statements and even launching the Anna Delvey Foundation foundation—a fake private club and art organization she used to lure wealthy benefactors and bolster her image.
Sorokin spent the next several years conning countless individuals, banks and hotels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. These scams included falsified loan applications to City National Bank and Fortress Investment Group, along with dozens of unpaid bills at hotels and dining establishments. She often persuaded friends and companies to give her money with the promise of paying them back, convincing them that her net worth was in the millions. In one instance, she reportedly promised to charter an all-expenses-paid vacation to Morocco but ended up sticking her friend with the $62,000 bill. On another occasion, Sorokin convinced a bank to loan her $100,000, which she never paid back.
In August 2017, Sorokin was arrested during a sting operation after multiple hotels pressed charges against her for failing to pay for her stays. She was indicted on two counts of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, three counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of grand larceny in the third degree and one count of misdemeanor theft of services for her fraudulent loan applications. She was also indicted for incidences of check fraud and theft of services related to her failure to pay back her hotel and restaurant bills.
A grand jury later sentenced Sorokin to four to 12 years in state prison for her crimes. As part of her sentencing, the con artist was fined $24,000 and ordered to pay restitution of around $199,000. During her prosecution in 2019, it was estimated that Sorokin stole a total of $275,000.
Is Anna Delvey still in prison?
After serving nearly four years of her prison sentence, Sorokin was released on parole early for good behavior in February 2021 from the Albion Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Following her release, the German national wasted no time in relaunching her social media accounts and sharing photos of herself living what appeared to be a lavish life all over again.
In an interview with Insider following her February prison release, Sorokin—who still goes by Delvey—insisted that she never meant to commit fraud and she doesn’t harbor any real regret for what happened. “I have to deal with the consequences of my actions, yeah,” she told the site at the time. “But to just sit around and just think about everything I’ve done — it’s not going to have changed it. I don’t know. It would be a huge waste of my time.”
“I did what I did. And I was, I don’t know, 23, 24, 25. I’m just trying to fix things and move on,” she explained. “I never really went, “Oh, let me go and defraud City National Bank, that will be the best thing to do ever.” Or, “Let me go take this random girl, Rachel, on vacation and make her pay.” Who thinks like this?”
While on parole, Sorokin also decided to appeal her case. Her lawyer, Audrey A. Thomas, alleged to Insider that much of the money she stole was on a civil level, rather than at the level of criminal conduct—but Sorokin’s bid didn’t keep her out of custody for long.
Where is Anna Delvey now?
After Anna Delvey was released on parole from prison in February 2021, the fake heiress found herself in custody once again—this time, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On March 25, 2021, the German national was detained in New York City for breaking the terms of her visa.
The fake heiress opened up about her ICE arrest in an Insider essay published on February 2, 2022, where she writes that her visa overstay was “unintentional” following her release. “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.'”
“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,” Sorkin continued in her essay. “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.”
Sorokin also called out the Daily Mail for a February 2021 report about one of her outings in New York City, writing, “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.” As of February 2022, Sorokin is still being held in an ICE detention center in upstate New York awaiting deportation to Germany.
My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Buy: ‘My Friend Anna’ by Rachel DeLoache $24.30
For more about Anna Delvey, read Rachel DeLoache Williams’ 2019 book My Friend Anna: The True Story of Anna Delvey, the Fake Heiress Who Conned Me and Half of New York City. In the book, which was one of Time’s 100 Best Books of 2019, Vanity Fair photo editor (and one of Anna’s ex-best friends) Rachel DeLoache wrote about how she was seduced by Anna and scammed out of more than $62,000. The tell-all also includes never-been-told details from Rachel’s trip to Marrakech with Anna and how the supposed all-expenses-paid vacation at a $7,500-per-night private village turned into a real-life nightmare. My Friend Anna is a “true story of money, power, greed and female friendship.”
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