Judge sentences fake German heiress Anna Sorokin to 4 to 12 years behind bars
Prosecutors say Sorokin conned her way into living a jet-setting lifestyle in New York, asking friends to front big bills that she never paid back; Laura Ingle reports.
Convicted felon Anna Sorokin was freed Friday from an upstate correctional facility after 17 months in detention and will remain in New York City as her deportation case winds through immigration court, according to her spokesman.
"She got out Friday afternoon," her spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, told Fox News Digital. "She's looking forward to restarting her life."
The fake heiress, who pretended to have a 60 million euro fortune, was a fixture among the city's rich and fashionable before her real identity was unmasked.
The 31-year-old social grifter, whose cons inspired the hit Netflix series "Inventing Anna," persuaded a judge to grant her bond while she fights her deportation to Germany for overstaying her visa.
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Anna Sorokin sits at the defense table during her trial at New York State Supreme Court, in New York, Monday, April 22, 2019. Sorokin, who claimed to be a German heiress, is on trial on grand larceny and theft of services charges. (Richard Drew/AP)
Her two prior bids for release from Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen were shot down.
After a two-day hearing, Judge Charles Conroy ruled Wednesday that Sorokin "remains a present danger to the community and presents some flight risk, such risk and danger can be mitigated by specific alternatives to detention and monetary bond."
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The conditions of her release include a $10,000 bond, a GPS ankle monitor, 24-hour home confinement and a complete ban from social media, according to the order obtained by Fox News Digital.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who opposed the decision, declined to comment.
Anna Sorokin sitting at the defense table during her grand larceny trial in New York City for ripping off friends and businesses. (Richard Drew/AP)
"The government failed to demonstrate that she posed such a threat to public safety that the only possible solution is to lock her up in jail," her immigration lawyer John Sandweg previously told Fox News Digital.
The con woman, who also goes by the alias Anna Delvey, was detained by ICE March 30, 2021 – weeks after her early release from prison on larceny and theft of services convictions.
Anna Sorokin, who claimed to be a German heiress, returns to the courtroom April 28, 2019, during her trial on grand larceny and theft of services charges in New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
A jury found her guilty in 2019 of stealing more than $200,000 from banks and businesses and submitting forged documents to try to score a $22 million loan by posing as the scion of a wealthy German family.
"The thing is, I am not sorry," she told a newspaper in a jailhouse interview before her sentencing. The judge gave her four to 12 years in prison.
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She got a huge payday after selling the rights to her story to Netflix and working as advisor on the show.
She plans to appeal her conviction.
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