Inventing Anna True Story: Everything to Know About Anna Delvey

Netflix's true-crime miniseries Inventing Anna captivated audiences when it premiered in February 2022.

The limited series starring Julia Garner tells the wild true story of fraudster Anna Sorokin, who posed as a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey while living in New York City.

In addition to scamming countless wealthy socialites, Sorokin also swindled several prominent banks and hotels during her time in the Big Apple.

Since Sorokin's sentencing in 2019, there have been several adaptations of the infamous story — including a book written by her former friend Rachel Williams titled My Friend Anna and a forthcoming HBO series, per Deadline — but the Netflix show is based on Jessica Pressler’s New York article, "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People.”

Read on to learn more about the true story of Anna Delvey.

Who is Anna Delvey?

Anna Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, was born on Jan. 23, 1991, in Domodedovo, a Russian town outside of Moscow, but predominantly grew up in Germany. She and her brother were raised in a middle-class family; her father drove a truck and her mother once owned a small convenience store.

At age 19, Sorokin left Germany to pursue a fashion degree in Paris and eventually took on the name Anna Delvey. In summer 2013, she attended Fashion Week in New York on behalf of Purple magazine, where she was working at the time, and eventually opted to live in the city.

Since her conviction, Sorokin has not been in contact with her parents, who also did not attend her trial. Her father has previously stated that he has disowned her, telling DailyMailTV in April 2019: "I do not have any influence on her life and what she does. It is down to her what she has done."

What crimes did Anna Delvey commit?

While in N.Y.C., Sorokin paraded as a wealthy German heiress to infiltrate herself into the inner circle of the city's biggest socialites. During her time in the city, she scammed countless people, hotels, and banks, often using invalid credit cards or fake bank statements to create the illusion of wealth. She even created the idea of the Anna Delvey Foundation, a private club and art foundation, to entice wealthy donors and further her brand.

After bouncing from hotel to hotel and repeatedly not paying her bills, Sorokin was evicted from several of them. In October 2017, Sorokin was arrested during a sting operation. At the time, she was staying at an addiction treatment facility in Los Angeles County, Calif. During her prosecution, it was estimated that she stole around $275,000.

On April 25, 2019, Sorokin was found guilty of eight charges in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, including attempted grand larceny in the first degree, grand larceny in the second degree, grand larceny in the third degree, and theft of services. That May, she was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000.

Where is Anna Delvey now?

After her trial, Sorokin was sent to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before being transferred to Albion Correctional Facility in New York. In February 2021, she was released early from prison and immediately returned to Instagram.

However, that March, she was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa.

On Oct. 5, 2022, Sorokin was granted release from an ICE facility in Orange County, N.Y., Bloomberg reported.

As part of her release, per Bloomberg, she had to pay a $10,000 bail and was banned from social media, where she often shared posts showing off her seemingly lavish lifestyle for her friends and potential investors.

In July 2023, Sorokin announced her foray into music, releasing a song titled “What the Hell?” with TikTok star and country singer Brooke Butler. The track is the theme song for Sorokin’s The Anna Delvey Show podcast, which she launched that June.

Besides music, the convicted con artist has also dabbled in the fashion industry. In September 2023, Sorokin teamed with fashion public relations pro Kelly Cutrone to form the OutLaw Agency, which hosted a rooftop fashion show in N.Y.C. for up-and-coming fashion designer Shao Yang’s eponymous label, SHAO.

Sorokin resides in the East Village in N.Y.C., where she remains under house arrest as of February 2024, according to the Daily Mail.

Did Netflix pay Anna Delvey for Inventing Anna?

In January 2021, Business Insider (then Insider) reported that Netflix paid Sorokin $320,000 for the rights to adapt her life story for Inventing Anna. The publication also reported that Sorokin used $199,000 of the money she received from Netflix to pay restitution to the banks she owes, plus another $24,000 to settle state fines.

In an open letter for Insider in February 2022, Sorokin expressed her thoughts on the Netflix series, noting that "nothing about seeing a fictionalized version of myself in this criminal-insane-asylum setting sounds appealing to me."

"For a long while, I was hoping that by the time Inventing Anna came out, I would've moved on with my life," she wrote. "I imagined for the show to be a conclusion of sorts summing up and closing of a long chapter that had come to an end. Nearly four years in the making and hours of phone conversations and visits later, the show is based on my story and told from a journalist's perspective. And while I'm curious to see how they interpreted all the research and materials provided, I can't help but feel like an afterthought, the somber irony of being confined to a cell at yet another horrid correctional facility lost between the lines, the history repeating itself."