Fake Heiress And ‘Inventing Anna’ Subject Anna Sorokin Still In ICE Custody, Despite Deportation Reports

Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress at the heart of “Inventing Anna,” is still in federal custody after reports she'd been deported back to Germany.

Confusion about Sorokin’s status began Monday when her attorney Manny Arora told NBC News that he hadn’t heard from her notorious client and assumed she had been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Legally, they should not be able to deport her until the 19th,” he said of his 31-year-old client. “That is due to the deportation order being signed on February 17 and that allows us to have 30 days to file an appeal. But we are dealing with bureaucracy, and there are numerous filings in her case so you just never know if there was a paperwork error. I haven't heard from Miss Sorokin this afternoon, and so I am working under the presumption that she is being deported.”

The New York Post then reported that online records show that she was released from ICE custody on Monday, with unnamed sources telling the paper she was set to board a flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Monday night.

However, on Tuesday, ICE officials confirmed that Sorokin was still in their custody in Goshen, N.Y., according to the paper.

“I spoke to Anna this morning. She was confused and a little concerned,” Arora told the Post. “It’s hard [for her] to understand all the bureaucracy, especially given she’s locked up in jail for 20-plus hours a day and doesn’t have control. When you don’t know what your future holds, when you can’t call people when you want to to get information, it makes you anxious and frustrated. She’s staying positive, but it’s hard on her.”

Arora said he had filed a motion to stay the deportation, which has yet to be ruled on.

Sorokin served four years for masquerading as a German heiress named Anna Delvey between 2013 and 2017. While Sorokin was released from prison last February, she was arrested six weeks later by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa. The Russian-born German has reportedly been in ICE custody in upstate New York ever since. She filed a class-action lawsuit against ICE, along with other detainees, earlier this month for allegedly neglecting to protect her from COVID-19.

Sorokin is the subject of Netflix’s new series “Inventing Anna,” which stars Julia Garner as the 31-year-old grifter. Sorokin solicited $275,000 from friends, banks and businesses. Sorokin has always maintained that she had a legitimate business plan for her project, the Anna Delvey Foundation, and her lawyer has stated that she was merely trying to "fake it til she made it" in the difficult career waters of New York City.