The convicted Russian-German fraudster Anna Sorokin, who pretended to be a German heiress under the name Anna Delvey, the Netflix series, is a combination of fact and fiction.
The series has proved to be a hit on Netflix. The 10 episode crime series follows the exploits of Anna Delvey, a Russian-born fraudster who defraud banks, hotels and acquaintances out of thousands of dollars while she stayed in New York.
Each episode of starts with a disclaimer that everything in the story is based on a real story. Anna Sorokin was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services in relation to these offenses in 2019. On 11th February 2021, she was released from prison.
Sorokin used Microsoft Word to create fake bank statements and other financial documents purporting to show that she had €60 million in Swiss bank accounts but could not access them since they were in trust and she was in the U.S. On August 17 and 21, 2017, Sorokin allegedly deposited two bad checks worth $15,000 into her account at Signature Bank and over the next few days, she withdrew approximately $8,200 in cash before the checks were returned.
Anna's story grabbed the headlines in 2018 after 'New York Magazine' revealed her plan to create a mixed-use development by borrowing money from banks. During Sorokin's life as a jet-setter, she obtained hundreds of thousands from her wealthy friends with the promise of paying them back, which she never did.
Her scheme hit a roadblock in 2017 after her arrest on grand larceny charges for which she was found guilty in 2019. Sorokin used most of the money received from Netflix to settle the court cases against her.