If someone wishes to become something but doesn't have the capacity, they may as well buy their way through. But if they don't have the money, they better be a trickster.
Anna Sorokin is an ordinary person. But the urge for her to become an elite turned her into a scammer, in which she pretended to become a fake German heiress named Anna Delvey. The scammer successfully wiggle her way in into the upper classes of New York.
This time, her attorneys convinced a judge to let her out of prison, after spending 17 months at Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen.
It is said that she can be freed on a $10,000 bail, an immigration judge said.
Sorokin shall be released, but with electronic monitoring, while she fights deportation by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
It is also said that Sorokin who shall be placed under 24-hour house arrest, is also banned from using all forms of social media .
Sorokin arrives for sentencing at New York Supreme Court on May 9, 2019.
Sorokin during her trial in New York Supreme Court on April 11, 2019.
Sorokin during her trial in New York Supreme Court on April 11, 2019.
Russian-born Sorokin rose to notoriety by pretending to be an heiress named Anna Delvey from 2013 to 2017.
At that time, she successfully conned friends and businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sorokin was arrested in 2017, and then convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of theft and grand larceny, with a sentence of up to 12 years.
Then, she landed herself behind bars in the Hudson Valley when she was arrested for overstaying her visa in March 2021.
This happened six weeks after she was released from Albion Correctional Facility near Rochester for good behavior after serving three years of her four-to-12 year sentence.
She was not promptly deported, since a judge ruled in a subsequent hearing that Sorokin was a flight risk, and that she had to stay in detention until her immigration issue was resolved.
Earlier this 2022, she announced her plans to launch a collection of NFTs called "Reinventing Anna," according to an interview she gave when she was still in the Goshen prison.
Sorokin often posts her artwork on her Instagram account, which has more than 1 million followers.
"I also accomplished more in the six weeks they deemed were long enough for me to remain free than some people have in the past two years. My visa overstay was unintentional and largely out of my control. I served my prison sentence, but I'm appealing my criminal conviction to clear my name."
"I did not break a single one of New York state's or ICE's parole rules."
"Did I mention I'm the only woman in ICE custody in this whole jail? Tell me I'm special without telling me I'm special."
She said that it made "no sense" for her to still be prison after the authorities brought in and then released numerous violent offenders (robbers, rapists, would-be murderers) and others.
But since she was still there in prison, spending another set of holidays followed by a COVID-19-tainted birthday in a depressing cell, which made her think that the authorities were categorizing her "as more dangerous" than every single one of those people serious offenders.
Sorokin is banned from using social media because of her influencer's status. The judge is worried that once she's freed, she would use her fame to propel more malicious deeds.
This is why the U.S. Immigration Judge Charles Conroy’s Wednesday order prohibits Sorokin from ever posting on social media "either directly or by a third party."
"We are extremely gratified by the court’s decision today to release Anna Sorokin. The judge rightfully recognized that Anna is not a danger to the community," Sorokin's lawyer Duncan Levin said in a statement.
"While there are still a few hurdles to jump through on her release conditions, Anna is thrilled to be getting out so she can focus on appealing her wrongful conviction."
It's worth noting that Sorokin's scam as a fake heiress was even documented in the hit Netflix series "Inventing Anna," which depicts Sorokin’s fraudulent escapades in upper Manhattan.
While the series were considered a success, Sorokin initially stated that she had no desire to watch the series she had inspired.
"Nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me," Sorokin wrote in an essay.
