Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin released from US immigration custody
Mike Bedigan, PA Los Angeles Correspondent
Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin has been released from US immigration custody, her attorney has confirmed.
The con-artist (31) whose exploits inspired the hit Netflix series Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), since March 2021.
Her stay with ICE came after spending more than three years behind bars for swindling banks, hotels and friends to bankroll a luxurious lifestyle.
Immigration authorities say Sorokin has overstayed her visa and must be returned to Germany.
Earlier this week a US immigration judge agreed to her transfer from detention to home confinement while she fights deportation.
Sorokin was required to post a $10,000 bond, provide a residential address where she will stay for the duration of her immigration case and refrain from social media posting.
Her immigration attorney, John Sandweg, confirmed to the PA news agency that the process of her release had begun, and that she was being transferred from the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York to downtown Manhattan.
“She is on her way to being released… she is still going through the final processing,” Mr Sandweg said.
“She’s out of the jail where she was being held.”
Sorokin was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of larceny and theft.
She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, credited with more than 500 days of time served while her case was pending and released on good behaviour in February 2021, before being picked up by immigration authorities a few weeks later.
Using the name Anna Delvey, Sorokin manoeuvred her way into elite New York social circles by passing herself off as a socialite with a $67-million-dollar fortune overseas, prosecutors said.
She falsely claimed to be the daughter of a diplomat or an oil baron.
Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and lied to get banks to lend her money, luxury hotels to let her stay and well-heeled Manhattanites to cover plane tickets and other expenses for her, stealing $275,000 in total.
