Remember the Summer of Scam? If you need a refresher, the was a term coined to mark the summer of 2018, following the release of several high-profile and wild con sagas. Perhaps the defining story of that summer, though, was that of New York's fake German heiress, Anna Sorokin, who infiltrated some of the city's most elite social circles and conned a lot of people under the fake name "Anna Delvey."
The story of Sorokin has been dramatized in the Netflix series Inventing Anna, executive produced and written by Shonda Rhimes, and based on Jessica Pressler's New York magazine exposé about Delvey. Before you watch the show, here are a few key things to know about the stranger-than-fiction saga.
The story first came to light thanks to a New York magazine article.
In May of 2018, New York published Pressler's article, "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People," detailing exactly how Sorokin scammed a number of people and institutions into footing the bill for her lavish Manhattan lifestyle, which included a deluxe suite at the Soho hotel 11 Howard. She did this primarily by posing as a wealthy German heiress and aspiring entrepreneur—she told investors she was planning to launch a "a Soho House–ish type club" that would also be an art space.
Pressler, who was previously best known for writing the article that became the 2019 movie Hustlers, spoke with a number of Delvey's associates, including hotel concierge Neffatari Davis (who became her "de facto secretary" for a time). She also spoke with Sorokin herself, who was by then incarcerated at Rikers Island.
Sorokin was arrested in October of 2017.
The scam began to fall apart in the spring of 2017, when Sorokin invited three friends on a trip to Morocco, but was unable to pay the bill for their lavish accommodations upon checkout. One of her friends, photographer Rachel Williams, paid the bill using her own card, with Sorokin promising to reimburse her. She never did.
As she detailed in a Vanity Fair article, Williams subsequently discovered that her supposed friend was a con artist, who'd already racked up thousands of dollars in unpaid hotel bills in New York. After being evicted from several Manhattan hotels for non-payment, Sorokin was finally arrested in October of 2017, following a months-long investigation by the District Attorney's office.
She was indicted on charges of grand larceny, attempted grand larceny and theft of services, relating to several instances of wire fraud, fraudulent loan applications and failure to pay bills. It was estimated that she'd scammed more than $200,000 from various banks and hotels.
Sorokin's eye-catching courtroom fashion became a story in and of itself, with GQ noting that her trial was "her final chance to play dress-up". She was ultimately found guilty on most of the charges in April of 2019, and sentenced to 4 to 12 years in state prison.
Sorkin was released from prison early.
In February of 2021, Sorokin was released from prison early, having apologized at a parole hearing four months prior. "I just want to say that I'm really ashamed and I'm really sorry for what I did," she said, per a transcript quoted by the New York Post. "I completely understand that a lot of people suffered when I thought I was not doing anything wrong."
Shortly after her release, ICE took Sorokin into custody as it considered whether to deport her back to Germany. Per Insider, her future remains in limbo, after an immigration judge declined to release her in April, siding with an ICE attorney who'd argued that Sorokin's Instagram posts show that she has not been rehabilitated.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
