Anna Delvey Sorokin's Life after Her Release Last February — She Believes Prison Was a 'Waste of Time'
After being released from prison last February, Anna Sorokin, AKA Anna Delvey, started getting her life together. The "Fake Heiress" later called regret a "useless feeling."
Russian-born Anna Sorokin made headlines in 2019 after media outlets revealed she created a persona, Anna Delvey, and faked being a German Heiress with a $60 million trust fund.
She used the persona and fabricated documents to con New Yorks Elite and businesses, such as banks, hotels, and restaurants, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fuel her lavish lifestyle for several years.
Anna Delvey at the first Tumblr Fashion Honor presented to Rodarte, 2014, New York. [Left]. Anna Sorokin being led away after being sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court May 9, 2019 [Right] | Photo: Getty Images
Sorokin was tried and convicted of three counts of grand larceny, four counts of theft of services, and one count of attempted grand larceny. The month-long trial gained international attention and headlines for her courtroom fashions.
During the trial, Sorokin said her intent was never fraudulent. According to her lawyer, Todd Spodek, she had moved to Manhattan to start a high-end members-only arts club called "The Anna Delvey Foundation."
However, in trying to make a name for herself in the social scene in New York, Sorokin exploited the system, getting money from institutions and other people, fulling knowing she could not afford her lavish lifestyle.
After serving over three years in prison (her sentence was four to 12 years in jail), Sorokin was released in February on parole. The fake heiress was free for several weeks before immigration detained her. As of October 2021, she was still in ICE custody, waiting to be deported.
Her first move out of prison was to post updates on her social media pages. Sorokin started making plans to control the narrative of her story by working on a book, participating in various interviews, and recording her life after prison.
ABC 20/20 produced an episode about Sorokin and her story called "The Sinfluncer of Soho. " In the episode, Sorokin said she felt great and happy to be out of prison.
Following her jail experience, Sorokin has been outspoken about her beliefs that prison is a "waste of time," as the programs in place in prisons are pointless because they are outdated and are aimed at everyone, regardless of their level of crime.
Sorokin also has no regrets. After all, she feels regret is useless because she can not change what she did. Instead, Sorokin wants to fix things snd move on from the situation.
She did receive around $200,000 from Netflix and "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes to create a miniseries about her story called "Inventing Anna." "Ozark's" Julia Garner portrays Sorokin in the series. She used the money to pay off her debts and fines related to her crimes.