Fake heiress Anna “Delvey” Sorokin remains in custody in the US, immigration authorities said on Tuesday, despite reports she was about to be deported to Germany.
Sorokin, who was jailed in 2019 for scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from hotels, banks and friends and who inspired a hit series on Netflix, “remains in ICE custody pending removal”, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said.
US media had reported on Monday that Sorokin, who carried out her scams under the assumed name of “Anna Delvey”, was about to be extradited to Germany on a Frankfurt-bound flight.
But a spokesman for the police at Frankfurt airport said Sorokin had not arrived there as of Tuesday afternoon.
The 31-year-old Russian-German citizen managed in 2016 and 2017 to deceive New York's elite by posing as a wealthy heiress, when in fact she was the daughter of a lorry driver originally from the suburbs of Moscow.
Sorokin was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison but was released in February 2021 for good behaviour, only to be arrested again the next month for overstaying her visa. She was held in a facility by the ICE.
Capable of weaving skilful lies with extraordinary aplomb, the young woman posed as a German heiress with a fortune of $60 million, allowing her to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in loans from several banks.
Between November 2016 and August 2017, she travelled for free by private jet and lived on credit in Manhattan hotels without ever paying anything, said the New York justice department, which estimated her fraudulent acts paid out about $275,000.
Sorokin, who arrived in New York in 2013, had even tried to obtain a loan of $22m to launch a select club in Manhattan.
Her incredible story seduced television producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal) who made it into a mini-series on Netflix, Inventing Anna, with Julia Garner in the title role.
Media reports show Sorokin received $320,000 dollars from the streaming company.
