Fake heiress Anna Sorokin is finally being deported to Germany, sources say
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Jacob Shamsian
Mar 15, 2022, 03:25 IST
In this April 22, 2019 file photo, Anna Sorokin, who claimed to be a German heiress, arrives for her trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York.AP Photo/Richard Drew
Anna Sorokin is on her way back to Germany.
An immigration judge ruled that ICE could deport her after denying all her appeals.
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Anna Sorokin — who conned New York's social scene under the name Anna Delvey and whose exploits as a fake heiress became the subject of the hit Netflix show "Inventing Anna" — is being deported, two sources familiar with the situation told Insider.
Sorokin was scheduled to be removed from her jail in upstate New York at 2 p.m. Monday and be put on a plane headed to Germany, an attorney for Sorokin told Insider. Around that time, jail authorities drained her commissary funds and disabled the account she used for video calls.
The US Justice Department Board of Immigration Appeals issued a decision on February 17 denying Sorokin's previous appeals for her to remain in the United States as she argued against her incarceration. The decision cleared the way for US immigration authorities to deport her.
"Since there is nothing pending before the Board, the applicant's stay of removal, granted on Nov. 30, 2021, is no longer warranted and will be withdrawn. The stay will be denied," an immigration appeals judge wrote in the decision, a copy of which was obtained by Insider.
The decision says Sorokin had 30 days to file another appeal and halt her deportation. Manny Arora, an attorney representing Sorokin, told Insider that she was still within the 30-day window and that it was "not legally appropriate" for ICE to deport her.
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"Legally, they should not be able to deport her until at least the 17th. But it's ICE, and there are numerous filings in her case so you just never know if there was a paperwork error," Arora said. "In the end, they can do whatever they want."
A representative for the Orange County Jail referred questions to ICE. A representative for ICE declined to comment on Sorokin's deportation status.
She completed her criminal sentence on larceny and attempted larceny charges for her fake heiress scheme on February 11, 2021. But ICE re-arrested her six weeks after her release from prison for overstaying her visa.
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A Manhattan jury found her guilty in 2019 of a scam where she misrepresented her finances, pretending to be an heiress with a $60 million fortune, in order to obtain loans for a business called the Anna Delvey Foundation, which would be a mixed-use arts and restaurant space. Her lawyer argued in her defense that she was trying to "fake it 'til she made it" and planned to pay everyone back. Sorokin is appealing the guilty verdict.
"It makes no sense for me to still be here long after they have brought in and then released numerous violent offenders (robbers, rapists, would-be murderers) and people with an assortment of felony DUIs and grand larcenies," she wrote. "Do they not 'clearly possess the knowledge' to recommit the same crimes they've been accused of before, or do different standards apply to them?"
Sorokin was also part of a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over ICE's failure to administer coronavirus booster shots. She and the other plaintiffs in the case withdrew their lawsuit on Saturday after receiving their boosters, court records show.
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