Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress and inspiration of the Netflix docuseries “Inventing Anna,” is still in the United States after her lawyers reportedly blocked her deportation to Germany, according to The Daily Mail.
The 31-year-old conwoman had been scheduled to arrive at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday morning upon being deported by immigration authorities.
However, Sorokin remains on American soil after her attorneys successfully argued that an appeal deadline has not yet passed, prompting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to halt the deportation, at least temporarily.
The deportation deadline does not expire until March 19, Manny Arora, Sorokin’s lawyer, told The Daily Mail.
“Legally, they should not be able to deport her until the 19th. That is due to the deportation order being signed on February 17 and that allows us to have 30 days to file an appeal,” Arora told The Daily Mail.
Yet the situation was still very fluid Monday. Even in the afternoon, Sorokin’s attorneys were unable to reach her and had assumed she had left the United States.
But an ICE spokesperson later told The Daily Mail that Sorokin remains in the agency’s custody.
“On March 25 2021, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took custody of Anna Sorokin, 31, a German citizen convicted of first-degree attempted grand larceny; second-degree grand larceny; third-degree grand larceny; and theft of services. In November 2021, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) granted Sorokin’s emergency stay request; she remains in ICE custody pending removal,” the email states, according to the news outlet.
Prosecutors charged Sorokin after she bilked about $200,000 from New York socialites. Her ruse: pretending to be an heiress from Germany under the pseudonym Anna Delvey.
A news reporter for German broadcaster RTL who is monitoring flights in Germany confirmed to The Daily Mail that Sorokin has not yet landed in the country.
“[Sorokin] absolutely has not arrived today, and we have been waiting several hours for her,” the reporter, Daniela Hoffmann, told The Daily Mail.
“She didn’t want to be deported to Germany because she wanted to stay in the USA, and for this, she wanted to be given a second chance. I think everyone deserves a second chance in life!” Hoffmann added, according to The Daily Mail.
Sorokin was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. After serving nearly four years, she was released in February 2021 and returned to Manhattan, where she rented an apartment. But weeks later, immigration authorities arrested her for overstaying her visa after she told a journalist that “crime pays, in a way.” She has been in ICE custody ever since.
Netflix reportedly paid her $320,000 for rights to her life story.
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Featured Image: This April 15, 2019 file photo shows Anna Sorokin during her grand larceny trial at New York State Supreme Court, in New York. Prosecutors want to prevent the fake German heiress and convicted swindler Anna Sorokin from profiting from her highly publicized case. The New York Attorney General’s Office recently invoked a state law that forbids criminals from profiting off their crimes in a court challenge to a Netflix deal Sorokin signed last year. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
