Anna Delvey is the star of a new Netflix hit, Inventing Anna. She is living the kind of life most of us can only dream of: living in a five-star hotel, hanging out at the most exclusive clubs, eating at the most high-end restaurants and travelling to the most jealousy-inducing resorts around the world with her friends.
Except for it was a dream for Anna too, quite literally. She had dreamt up a persona for herself as a German heiress and conning the people and places around her in order to fund it.
For years, unless you were on the New York social scene, you had probably never heard of Anna — originally born in Russia to working class parents — but in 2018, the then-26-year-old was arrest for swindling banks, hotels and many individuals out of $200,000+ to keep up her wealthy facade and lifestyle.
The question is though, where is the real Anna Delvey now?
Well, firstly, her real name is Anna Sorokin, and after her arrest back in 2018, she was found guilty in May 2019, where a Manhattan jury convicted her on one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft services. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and was later released on parole back in February 2021.
Six weeks after Anna was released from the Albion Correctional Facility on parole in February 2021, she landed up in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa, according to The Cut. Honestly, does this girl not learn?
Anyway, according to Anna herself — who told her own story in an Insider essay last week — she has been in ICE custody ever since waiting to learn if she will be deported to Germany.
“My visa overstay was unintentional and largely out of my control,” she wrote, adding that she is appealing her criminal conviction to clear her name. “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.”
And it gets worse for Anna too, because back in mid-January, the heir-ain’t tested positive for COVID-19 and has been in quarantine isolation in the Orange Country Correctional Facility. “I’m sure I’ll live, but I haven’t been this sick in years,” she wrote.
So what’s next for her? Well, she had an ICE bond hearing in back in October 2021 and is currently waiting to hear if she will be departed to Germany.
In the meantime, what’s next for us is setting our reminders to watch Inventing Anna when it premieres on Netflix tomorrow (11 February).
The show’s official synopsis reads:
“A journalist with a lot to prove investigates the case of Anna Delvey, the Instagram-legendary German heiress who stole the hearts of New York’s social scene – and stole their money as well.
“But is Anna New York’s biggest con woman or is she simply the new portrait of the American Dream?