Anna Sorokin, better known by her alter ego name Anna Delvey, has been pictured for the first time in New York since leaving prison.
The fraudulent German “heiress” whose true story inspired the hit Netflix show Inventing Anna was pictured outside her new Manhattan apartment yesterday, getting ready to attend court. Dressed head to toe in black, Anna wore a trench coat, matching trousers, and strappy heels, finished with oversize sunglasses and a scarf draped over her head.
She also sported a brooch featuring the initials “AD,” indicating that she is not planning to revert back to her real surname.
If you’re unsure about Anna’s story that led her to this point, the fraudster spent several years in the 2010s as a socialite, persuading New York’s elite to invest in a members-only arts club named after herself. She deceived major financial institutions, banks, hotels, and acquaintances into funding her luxury lifestyle by pretending she was the daughter of a German oil tycoon.
MEGA//Getty Images
But in the end, Anna’s web of lies caught up with her and she was jailed for her financial crimes in 2017 for almost four years. Just one month after her prison release in February 2021, the 31-year-old was arrested again—this time for overstaying her visa in the U.S. Anna was taken into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, where she resided until her recent release last week.
Upon Anna’s prison exit, her attorney John Sandweg confirmed that a judge “recognized that immigration detention was no longer necessary for Anna,” although the ruling “does not mean that Anna will get a free pass” as she’ll be under house arrest.
“She will continue to face deportation proceedings and her release will be closely monitored by ICE and the state of New York,” he added. “As the court found, however, the evidence clearly demonstrated that any risks can be more than adequately mitigated by appropriate supervision.”
TIMOTHY A. CLARY//Getty Images
Despite Anna’s movements being monitored through a tag on her ankle, Anna admits she prefers her life now to the way it was behind bars. She gave the New York Times insight into her newfound freedom in Manhattan, stating that she could have visitors after 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays. “I definitely have a different perspective now than I did when I came out the first time last February,” she said. “It’s just impossible to have been through what I’ve been through without changing. I learned so much being in jail.”
Anna added that she will most likely stay in New York while she continues to fight her deportation case. “I’m really, really happy about that. That’s exactly what I wanted. I’m just hoping to get more freedom eventually.”
“There’s a very well-documented arc about how I’ve felt about everything. It wouldn’t be right if I were just to switch in one day. That would be very disingenuous. It’s a process. I am regretful about the way things played out. The way I’ve tried to see my experience is to learn from it: Who I am today is because of the decisions I made in the past.”
When the New York Times asked Anna, “What are you most excited about doing now that you’re out?” she simply answered, “Finding my way back.”
Related Stories
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLvSpqapp5yewaK6jZympmeVo8GmvtOaoKellaPBcK%2FEpZybq1%2BWgXKCj2pvcHBfnru3sc2toKefXZa7r62MnZylrpWuerOxy56YrJ1dpbakwNSrnKxn