Anna Sorokin, swindler who inspired Netflix's 'Inventing Anna,' released on bail but banned from social media
Anna Sorokin, the convicted Russian-born scammer who became the subject of Netflix's miniseries Inventing Anna, was released from American federal jail Oct. 5.
The Daily Beast reported that U.S. Immigration Judge Charles Conroy granted Sorokin a $10,000 bail bond. She did time at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Orange County, New York in March 2021 for overstaying her visa.
She, however, is banned from using social media and is subjected to “24-hour confinement at the provided residential address for the duration of her immigration proceedings."
“We are extremely gratified by the court’s decision today to release Anna Sorokin," her lawyer Duncan Levin is quoted as saying. "The judge rightfully recognized that Anna is not a danger to the community."
Sorokin, 31, posed as wealthy German heiress "Anne Delvey," swindling New York's elites—as well as hotels, banks, and friends—out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund her lavish lifestyle.
Her scamming ways, as documented by Jessica Pressler of the New York Magazine in May 2018, inspired Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner of Ozark fame. It trended in the Philippines and worldwide.
But in an essay for Insider, Sorokin said: "Nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me.”
Variety reported that she was first convicted in May 2019 on eight counts, including theft of services and grand larceny. She was released on parole for good behavior in February 2021, or a month before immigration officials arrested her, having served three of her four-to-12 year sentence.