Convicted con artist Anna Sorokin released from jail, attorney says

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who masqueraded as a German heiress and swindled wealthy New Yorkers, has been released from jail but must steer clear of social media, her attorney has confirmed.

The 31-year-old, who also went by the name Anna Delvey and is the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2021.

Earlier this week US immigration judge Charles Conroy agreed to her transfer from detention to home confinement while she fights deportation.

Sorokin was required to post a $10,000 (£8,900) bail bond, provide a residential address where she will stay for the duration of her immigration case and refrain from social media posting.

Her immigration attorney, John Sandweg, confirmed the process of her release had begun, and that she was being transferred from the Orange County correctional facility in upstate New York to downtown Manhattan.

“She is on her way to being released … she is still going through the final processing,” Sandweg said. “She’s out of the jail where she was being held.”

Her stay with ICE came after spending more than three years behind bars for duping banks, hotels and friends to bankroll a luxurious lifestyle.

Immigration authorities say Sorokin has overstayed her visa and must be returned to Germany.

Sorokin, a would-be art collector who became known as the “SoHo grifter”, was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of larceny and theft.

Prosecutors argued that Sorokin’s ambition was to “live the fantasy of an extravagant lifestyle beyond her means”.

At her sentencing, Judge Diane Kiesel said she was “stunned by the depth of the defendant’s deception, her labyrinthine lies that kept her con afloat”.

She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, credited with more than 500 days of time served while her case was pending and released on good behaviour in February 2021.

Sorokin was picked up by immigration authorities a few weeks later.

She manoeuvred her way into elite New York social circles by passing herself off as a socialite with a $67m (£59m) fortune overseas, prosecutors said.

She falsely claimed to be the daughter of a diplomat or an oil baron. In reality her father reportedly runs a heating and cooling business.

Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and lied to get banks to lend her money, luxury hotels to let her stay and well-heeled Manhattanites to cover plane tickets and other expenses for her, stealing $275,000 (£245,000) in total.