NEW YORK — Anna Sorokin, the con artist who posed as a German heiress to finance an extravagant lifestyle in New York, is making a new effort to avoid deportation, her attorney said Tuesday.
Sorokin, whose scheme inspired the recent Netflix series “Inventing Anna,” was taken into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody nearly a year ago. She remains jailed in New York state, her attorney Manny Arora said.
Sorokin was found guilty in 2019 and spent more than two years in prison. She has since been appealing her deportation. Last month, an immigration judge refused to stop the 31-year-old German citizen from being deported.
Using the name Ana Delvey, Sorokin blended into New York City’s elite by posing as an heiress with a $67 million fortune abroad, according to prosecutors. She falsely claimed that she was the daughter of a diplomat or an oil tycoon.
Prosecutors said Sorokin forged documents and lied to banks to get loans, luxury hotels to stay in rooms and conned wealthy New Yorkers to cover the cost of plane tickets and other expenses for her, $275,000 in all.
Her attorney at trial portrayed her as an ambitious businesswoman who got into financial trouble and was simply looking for time to pay off her debts.
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