NEW YORK – US immigration authorities said Thursday they detained Anna Sorokin, the con artist who posed as a wealthy German heiress and spent more than three years behind bars for defrauding banks and hotels in New York.
Sorokin, who managed to enter Manhattan’s elite under the name Anna Delvey, remained in the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey days after he was scheduled to be deported to his native Germany.
The 30-year-old woman was taken into custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 25, agency spokesman Marcus Johnson told The Associated Press.
The delay could mean that the once darling of the New York social scene is challenging her deportation, which has been in process since she was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of robbery.
ICE declined to comment on Sorokin’s immigration procedures. Sorokin’s lawyer also declined to discuss the case. A message seeking comment was left at the German embassy in Washington.
Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and defrauded Manhattan financial institutions and celebrities into believing he had a $ 67 million (€ 60 million) fortune abroad that could cover his high-end clothing and luxurious hotel stays. .
Among other lies, he claimed that his father, a former truck driver who runs a heating and cooling business, was a diplomat or an oil magnate.
His ruse included an application for a $ 22 million loan to fund a private art club, with exhibits, installations and pop-up shops, prosecutors said. She was denied that loan, but convinced a bank to lend her $ 100,000 that she was unable to repay.
In total, prosecutors charged her with defrauding about $ 275,000.
Sorokin, who became known as the “Soho Grifter,” was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison after a trial that attracted international media attention. He was released from jail in February.
In a recent interview with the BBC, he suggested that his audacious fraud had paid off, noting that he is writing a book and working on several other projects.
“I’m trying to turn the attention I’m getting into something positive,” he said.
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