Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Fake Heiress Anna Sorokin Believes She Made A ‘Mistake’ And Deserves ‘A Second Chance’ In America
Following her release on house arrest, Anna Sorokin said she believes she shouldn’t be deported after serving time for scamming friends and businesses out of more than $200,000.
Anna Sorokin believes she deserves a “second chance” in America.
Sorokin — who’s high-profile scam to defraud friends, banks and business of more than $200,000 was portrayed in the Netflix drama “Inventing Anna” — sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper in her apartment, where she’s on house arrest as part of her parole conditions. She discussed her past conviction and the reason she has chosen to fight immigration back to Russia.
“I feel like if I were to leave and say, 'Oh, whatever I’m just going to move on and like move to Europe,’ I would be like accepting the labels that they are trying to slap on me,” she said, according to CNN.
Sorokin was released from ICE custody last week, where she’d been held since March 2021 for an expired visa, after a judge ruled she could be held in home confinement while the immigration case against her proceeds.
RELATED: Anna Sorokin Says She's Ready To 'Fix Things' After Being Released From ICE Custody
She told Tapper she is now “trying to prove people wrong” and change the image she has earned as a callous scammer who took advantage of others for her own benefit.
“I feel like I deserve a second chance, it was my mistake that I made and I’ve served my time, and I feel like I should deserve a second opportunity,” she said.
Sorokin rose to fame after she was found guilty in 2019 of eight charges, including attempted grand larceny, grand larceny and theft of services, for masquerading as a German heiress known as Anna Delvey. Using the fake persona, authorities say she slipped into New York City’s elite social scene to scam banks, business and her friends out of $275,000, according to previous reporting from Oxygen.com.
She was released from prison in 2021 for good behavior, but was taken into custody by immigration officials for the expired visa just weeks later.
Today, Sorokin said she “absolutely” has regrets about her actions, telling Tapper, “I feel so sorry for whatever choices I’ve made but I also feel like I’ve learned so much and like, I grew as a person.”
Sorokin said she already apologized for her actions in court, but when Tapper pressed her about whether she’d reached out to anyone individually to apologize she said she hadn’t because she had been acquitted in court of scamming her friend and “everybody else is a financial institution.”
“I was younger and I learned from my mistakes,” she said.
She insisted it was never her intention to gain notoriety in connection with the case and believes she’s gotten the intense media interest because of America’s fascination with scams and crimes.
Sorokin said she “never really wanted to be famous” and had just wanted to focus on her business, suggesting that it was the prosecutors who drew attention to the scandal. “I feel like part of it was the prosecution, the way they portrayed me, and just the media, they kind of created this idea of me and I’m just being left to deal with it right now,” she said, adding that she is hoping to “change the narrative” after completing her parole and trying to comply with the rules and restrictions place on her by ICE.
As part of the conditions of her release from ICE detention, Sorokin must post a $10,000 bond, be subjected to “24-hour confinement at the provided residential address for the duration of her immigration proceedings,” and stay off social media, The Daily Beast reports.
Sorokin’s attorney Duncan Levin told Oxygen.com last week that her legal team was “extremely gratified” by the court’s decision to release her from custody.
“The judge rightfully recognized that Anna is not a danger to the community,” he said, adding that Anna was “thrilled” to be getting out after the lengthy stay.
