Anna Sorokin

Early life

Delvey was born on January 23, 1991, in Domodedovo, a working-class satellite town south of Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in the Soviet Union. Her father, Vadim, worked as a truck driver. When Delvey was a teenager, her family relocated to North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. There, her father became an executive at a transport company until the company became insolvent in 2013. He then opened an HVAC business specializing in efficient energy use. As a young adult, Delvey obsessively followed Vogue, fashion blogs, and image accounts on LiveJournal and Flickr.

After graduating from the school in June 2011, Delvey moved to London to attend Central Saint Martins, an art school, but soon dropped out and returned to Germany.

Fraud

In mid-2013, Delvey traveled to New York City to attend New York Fashion Week. Finding it easier to make friends in New York than Paris, she opted to stay, transferring to Purples New York office for a brief time.

In 2015, Delvey met the art collector and University of Pennsylvania student Michael Xufu Huang at a dinner party. Learning that Huang planned to attend the Venice Biennale, Delvey asked whether she could accompany him. Huang agreed and booked a flight and hotel room for Delvey on the understanding that he would be reimbursed for the $2,000–$3,000 cost. On their return to New York, Delvey did not repay Huang. Huang initially assumed that Delvey was simply absent-minded. Also in 2015, Delvey attended Art Basel in Miami Beach. She hired a public relations firm to book a birthday party for herself at Sadelle's restaurant in January 2016; after her credit card was declined and pictures of Huang at the event were posted on social media, restaurant staff asked Huang for Delvey's contact details. At this time Huang became suspicious of Delvey and noticed that she always paid with cash and lived in a hotel, not an apartment. at Gibson Dunn, who in turn put her in touch with several large financial institutions, including City National Bank and Fortress Investment Group. City National refused to extend credit when Delvey failed to provide the source of the Swiss assets, and she then applied for a loan from Fortress. Fortress agreed to consider the application if Delvey paid $100,000 to cover legal expenses relating to the application. In December 2016, with Delvey unable to pay rent, the Church Missions House was leased to Fotografiska New York. She then wired $30,000 to 11 Howard to pay the outstanding bill. Delvey had allegedly met Blade CEO Robert S. Wiesenthal, but Wiesenthal later said he did not know her at all.

Since Delvey still refused to provide a credit card to the 11 Howard hotel, the entry code to her room was changed while she was in Omaha and her belongings were placed in storage. After contacting other acquaintances who had also lent money to Delvey and were not repaid, and who had all heard different backstories on Delvey's parents' alleged wealth, Williams realized that Delvey was committing fraud.

Returning to New York later in May, Delvey relocated to the Beekman Hotel. Twenty days later, in June 2017, having accumulated a bill of $11,518 and failing to pay despite repeated promises, she was evicted. She then attempted a similar scam at the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, failing to pay her $503.76 bill; she was evicted after two days and charged with theft of services. By July 5, Delvey was homeless. She then interrupted Duke in the middle of a date, crying and pressuring her into providing lodging.

Indictment and arrest Delvey was arrested on October 3, 2017, in a sting operation planned by Michael McCaffrey, a police officer with the New York Police Department working with the Manhattan District Attorney's office. To facilitate the sting, McCaffrey worked closely with Williams. At the time, Delvey was staying at Passages Malibu, a luxury rehab/addiction treatment facility in California.

To convince Delvey to enter a more public venue where an arrest would be more easily effected, McCaffrey had Williams arrange a lunch meeting at a restaurant outside the facility. When Delvey left the facility, Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested her. Later that month, a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. indicted Delvey on two counts of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, three counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of grand larceny in the third degree, and one count of misdemeanor theft of services for the fraudulent loan applications made to City National and Fortress, the check fraud, the cost of the trip to Morocco, and the unpaid hotel and restaurant bills.

Trial, conviction, and sentence

On December 18, 2018, Delvey appeared in New York City Criminal Court and rejected a plea deal that offered three to nine years in prison. Her trial started on March 20, 2019, presided over by Judge Diane Kiesel. One day she swapped her Rikers Island uniform for a Michael Kors shift dress. The next day she paired a sheer black Saint Laurent top with Victoria Beckham trousers. One Friday she refused to enter the courtroom because she did not want to appear in her jail-issued clothing.

At trial, Delvey's lawyer defended her by saying that her intent all along was to repay her debts and that she received services in exchange for publicity on Instagram. He described her as an entrepreneur, comparing her to Frank Sinatra, claiming they both created a "golden opportunity" in New York.

On April 25, 2019, after deliberating for two days, the jury found Delvey guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. Delvey was found not guilty of two other charges: one of attempted grand larceny in the first degree relating to the original loan application with City National, and one of larceny in the second degree relating to the alleged theft of $62,000 from Rachel Williams in Marrakesh.

In an interview before her sentencing, Delvey said, "I'd be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything." These amounts, as well as approximately $75,000 in legal fees related to the trial, were paid from proceeds of Delvey's $320,000 deal with Netflix; the court allowed Delvey to keep the remaining $22,000. Delvey was not forced to pay the $160,000 in legal fees owed to Perkins Coie related to the unsuccessful lease of Church Missions House, $65,000 in legal fees due to Gibson Dunn related to the unsuccessful $22 million loan application, or $30,000 in legal fees due to Lowenstein Sandler.

After the trial, Delvey, inmate #19G0366 of the New York State Department of Corrections, was initially housed at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women before being transferred to Albion Correctional Facility. On February 11, 2021, she was released from prison on parole. After release, she checked in to The NoMad hotel and hired a German camera crew to follow her and film her activities.

ICE custody and house arrest Six weeks after her release on parole, on March 25, 2021, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Delvey into custody for overstaying her visa. ICE held her in a New Jersey county jail to await deportation to Germany, which she legally contested. An immigration judge ruled that if Delvey were freed, she "would have the ability and inclination to continue to commit fraudulent and dishonest acts".

In January 2022, Delvey tested positive for COVID-19 in jail and was placed in quarantine. While still in jail on March 1, 2022, she joined a class-action suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Delvey alleged that ICE refused multiple requests for a COVID-19 vaccine booster. She had received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine the previous April.

In October 2022, Delvey was granted a $10,000 bail bond and released from jail. She was required to remain in 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring and no access to social media.

Early in 2024, Delvey was allowed to move her house arrest to the Hudson Valley home of her friend Kelly Cutrone.

In August 2024, Delvey's access to social media was restored, and her house arrest was extended to a radius of the home. But the New York Attorney General's office sued Delvey in 2019 using the state's Son of Sam law, which prohibits those convicted of a crime from profiting from its publicity, and forced the majority of these funds to be used for restitution and fines per the judgment.

In July 2019, My Friend Anna, a book by Rachel DeLoache Williams, was published by Gallery Publishing Group, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, as well as by Quercus in the UK and Goldmann in Germany. Williams received $300,000 for the book, in which she details her experiences with Delvey, including how the trip to Marrakesh affected her financially and mentally. Screenwriter Lena Dunham paid Williams $35,000 for an option to the television rights to her story but did not exercise it, so the story rights returned to Williams.

Delvey's story has been the subject of an episode of American Greed by CNBC, an episode of Generation Hustle by HBO Max, an episode of 20/20, in which Deborah Roberts interviewed Delvey in ICE custody, and an episode of 60 Minutes, in which Liam Bartlett interviewed her.

In December 2019, Delvey's story was the subject of Fake Heiress, a drama-documentary podcast by journalist Vicky Baker and playwright Chloe Moss released by BBC Radio 4, starring Bella Dayne as Delvey. In the 2020 American television series Katy Keene, the character of Pepper Smith, played by Julia Chan, is loosely based on Delvey.

In late July and early August 2021, Anna X, a stage play inspired by Delvey's story by Joseph Charlton starring Emma Corrin and Nabhaan Rizwan ran at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London and The Lowry in Salford.

Shonda Rhimes created Netflix's nine-episode series Inventing Anna. In it, Julia Garner plays Delvey. It was released in February 2022 and was the most-watched show on Netflix the week it was released.

In 2022, Delvey signed a deal with Bunim/Murray Productions to star in a reality television series about her life after prison. She is also working on a book about her time in jail and a podcast. In May 2022, Delvey joined sisters Paris Hilton and Nicky Rothschild on an episode of Hilton's podcast This is Paris.

In May 2025, Delvey was featured in a New Yorker magazine article titled, "Power Houses: Inside the Living Rooms of Notable New Yorkers".

After prison

As of December 2022, Delvey had sold $340,000 worth of art. The proceeds were used to post bail and pay three months of rent for Delvey's $4,250/month one-bedroom East Village apartment. The show incorporated art from 33 artists inspired by Delvey, including Noah Becker, publisher of Whitehot magazine. Each piece was listed for sale for $10,000. It was co-curated by Alfredo Martinez, who had been to prison for forging Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings, and Julia Morrison, who fronted $8,000 of her own money to fund the show but was never repaid despite Delvey's promise to do so. One of the pieces, Send Bitcoin, features a seated Delvey wearing a red dress while working on a computer and facing away from the viewer. Other pieces included Anna on ICE and ICE, both referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Grunge said the show "generally displayed [Delvey] in a sympathetic, if not overtly positive, light."

On May 19, 2022, while Delvey was incarcerated, "Allegedly" opened in a nightclub on the second floor of the Public Hotel in Manhattan. The show opened with Kanye West's song "Flashing Lights", followed by drag queen Yuhua Hamasaki hyping up the crowd. Models walked through the room holding Delvey's drawings in gold-plated frames and wearing white gloves, Versace sunglasses, and black stockings covering their heads and faces. The drawings were again priced at $10,000 each; Delvey said 15% of the proceeds would go to children's charities. Many reporters and publicists attended the show.

Non-fungible tokens

In June 2022, Delvey announced that she was launching a collection of non-fungible tokens. She created 10 such tokens that she said would give holders "exclusive access" to her.

Dancing with the Stars In September 2024, Delvey participated in season 33 of the dancing competition TV show Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Ezra Sosa, and was required to wear her ICE-mandated ankle monitor during the program. Delvey was one of the first two celebrities eliminated, along with Tori Spelling.

Fashion On September 13, 2023, during New York Fashion Week, Delvey hosted an event on the roof of her apartment, where she was under house arrest. She worked with fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone. A year later, in September 2024, Delvey modeled for fashion brand SHAO New York during New York Fashion Week and again in February 2025 for Elena Velez and several other brands, sporting her ankle monitor.

Personal life Delvey maintains social media accounts, which she has described as satire, on Twitter and Instagram. As a condition of her October 2022 release from ICE detention she was prohibited access to social media.