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Google PlayAnna Sorokin, the fake German heiress who was the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna drama series, has given her first interview following her release from jail.
The Russian-born con-artist, who posed as an heiress named Anna Delvey in New York from 2013 until her arrest in 2017, was released earlier this month on a $10,000 bail bond. Currently under house arrest, she’s facing the threat of deportation but she told TNYT that she hopes to remain in the United States.
“So many immigration lawyers told me I’d get deported to Mars before I’d get out in New York,” Sorokin, who was released from prison in February 2021 after she paid back her victims, told the New York Times. wh3 was later arrested again when U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement took her in for overstaying her visa.
“I just did not want it to go down the way ICE wanted it to,” when asked why she didn’t choose to fight for her immigration status from Germany, instead. “Letting them deport me would have been like a sign of capitulation—confirmation of this perception of me as this shallow person who only cares about obscene wealth, and that’s just not the reality. I could have left, but I chose not to because I’m trying to fix what I’ve done wrong. I have so much history in New York and I felt like if I were in Europe, I’d be running from something. But if jail does not prove people wrong, then what will?”
In the interview, Sorokin also reflected on how she feels about the fraud she committed during her mid-20s. “I am regretful about the way things played out,” she added. “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.” As for what she has planned for the future,Sorokine said that art is “definitely” one of the projects she’s working on.
“I have a lot going on. I’m working on my own podcast with different guests for each episode. But it’s not shaped up yet,” she said. “It was pretty hard to record anything high quality from jail. And then there’s my book. I’d love to do something with criminal-justice reform to kind of highlight the struggles of other girls.”
Read the full interview with Sorokin here.
