Anna Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy German heiress to access the upper echelons of the New York social and art scenes from 2013 to 2017. Born to working-class parents in the Soviet Union, Sorokin emigrated from Russia to Germany with her family in 2007.
Anna Sorokin, the con artist otherwise known as Anna Delvey, is back in the headlines after the release of Netflix’s Inventing Anna. Actress Julia Garner stars as Delvey in the Shonda Rhimes-produced miniseries, which documents the rise and fall of the fake heiress and how she defrauded wealthy friends, banks, hotels, and more.
“She’s actually pretty kind,” Garner said about Delvey in Town & Country. Garner says she visited her in prison before filming Inventing Anna and said, “She was incredibly appealing. She is quite gentle. When she wants anything, her speech becomes less soft-spoken.”
Anna Delvey Biography
Delvey was born Anna Sorokin in a Moscow suburb in 1991 and later moved to Germany with her family in 2007. She then relocated to Paris, where she started going by Anna Delvey, a ruse she kept up when she traveled on to New York City in 2014. While in New York, she conned her way into an extravagant lifestyle, skipping out on hotel bills and rubbing shoulders with the city’s elite and stealing from them.
Anna Delvey was detained on October 3, 2017, by the Los Angeles Police Department as part of a sting operation arranged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Rachel DeLoache Williams, who claimed Delvey defrauded her of more than $60,000 during a trip to Marrakesh, was involved in the sting. (With Inventing Anna, Williams has accused Netflix of “running a con woman’s public relations.”) Delvey was quickly taken to Rikers Island and imprisoned without bail. Three weeks later, she was charged with stealing $275,000 through numerous frauds.
“This defendant’s alleged criminal behavior includes schemes that resulted in a free trip to Morocco and travel on private jets,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a press release. “The investigation into her criminal behavior is ongoing, and if you believe you are a victim of this defendant, I urge you to contact my Office’s Financial Frauds Hotline.”
Delvey and her counsel sought to reach a plea agreement in June 2018, but Judge Diane Kiesel rejected it, claiming Delvey exhibited “no remorse.” Delvey’s case went to trial, and she was convicted in April 2019 of eight crimes, including second-degree grand larceny, theft of services, and first-degree attempted grand larceny.
She was found not guilty on two counts: attempted grand larceny in the first degree and larceny in the second degree (in connection with the alleged theft of $62,000 from Rachel Williams in Marrakesh).
Delvey was sentenced to four to twelve years in jail, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay reparations to her victims on May 9, 2019. “I am astounded by the level of the defendant’s dishonesty,” Justice Kiesel stated when delivering the punishment. Delvey was “blinded by the glitter and grandeur of New York City,” she continued.
Where is Anna Delvey now?
Delvey was released from prison on good behavior on February 11, 2021, after serving nearly four years. In March 2021, six weeks after her release, she was taken back into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa, and she remained in ICE custody in upstate New York for a year.
Delvey writes in an essay for Insider while imprisoned, “I don’t think I’ll be able to watch Inventing Anna anytime soon. Even if I could make it happen, nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum environment appeals to me.”
On Monday, March 14, 2022, Delvey was released from ICE custody and will be deported to Germany. German paper Der Spiegel reports that her deportation failed when she refused to leave the ICE detention center to go to the airport. Delvey’s lawyer told the New York Post that a motion to stay the deportation was filed.
“This morning, I spoke with Anna. She was perplexed and slightly concerned “Manny Arora, her lawyer, told the Post. “It’s difficult for her to understand all of the red tape, especially when she’s locked up in jail for 20-plus hours a day and has no control. When you don’t know what your future contains, when you can’t call people when you need to, you become anxious and frustrated. She’s trying to keep positive, but it’s difficult for her.”
What else is Anna Delvey up to?
She has agreed to join a new docu-series that will follow up where Inventing Anna leaves off. Delvey has agreed to star in a limited documentary series on her life after prison with Bunim-Murray Productions.
“Anna’s narrative is very much alive and continuing to develop as we speak. We’ve been working on this project with her for months, and we’ve spent endless hours on phone and video calls. She is a complex and interesting woman, and we are excited to chronicle the next chapter of her ever-changing story “Bunim/Murray Productions’ director of development, Michael Driscoll, told Deadline.
It’s not just television: while she awaits news of her deportation, her first art exhibition, dubbed “Free Anna Delvey,” opened in late March 2022 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The gallery features the work of 33 artists who were inspired by Delvey’s experience, as well as five 22-by-30-inch pencil and acrylic drawings by Delvey herself. According to the New York Times, each of the five sketches is worth $10,000.
“It’s ironic,” Delvey said to the New York Times. “How, after failing so publically in attempting to develop A.D.F. a couple of years ago, people are far more interested in hearing my voice today than they were in 2017.”
On May 19, Delvey’s second exhibition, her first solo display, titled “Allegedly,” contained 20 drawings done with pens and pencils provided to her in ICE detention.
She stated in a recorded call that was played during the event, “Hello, this is Anna Delvey. I hope you’re having a good time so far. I’m overjoyed to present my first art collection, titled ‘Allegedly.’ This is a series of sketches I made while detained in Orange County. I wanted to use the little resources I have at my disposal to record some of the most memorable and never-before-seen moments of the last few years.
Some of the pieces are clear, while others are more abstract, each with its own meaning and appearance to the observer. I studied fashion illustration in Paris and hadn’t sketched in a long time before my trial.”
According to Variety, her art dealer estimates the collection to be worth $400,000-$500,000. She ended her message by saying, “You’ve already heard many voices, but this is the first time I’m delivering my tale, my narrative from my point of view. I hope you enjoyed the show.”
In June 2022, she said that she has begun to participate in NFTs in order to interact with her followers. She’s unveiling ten new notes that will provide holders with “special access” to her, including one-on-one phone calls.
“I’m extremely pleased to connect with everyone who has been supporting me, and I’ve had so many letters and people have been reaching out to me through the messaging system on this channel,” she told NBC News. “And, obviously, I have very few opportunities to contact people and only have access to social media. So I’m really looking forward to this project.”
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