Inventing Anna: 'Fake Heiress' Anna Delvey Working On TV Project Following Prison Release
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Anna Delvey may have been released from prison just days ago, but the fake heiress is already being followed be cameras as she takes centre stage in a new TV project.
You might have heard of Russian-born fraudster Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin) thanks to hype around Netflix's upcoming series Inventing Anna, which will follow the true story of how she posed as a rich heiress to con New York's social elite out of thousands of dollars.
Delvey, 30, will be played by Ozark star Julia Garner, but viewers will now be able to catch a glimpse at the real woman behind the story as she announces the launch of her own vlog channel, named Anna Delvey TV, which will see her take on the role of an influencer stepping back into society.
Confirming the news during an interview with Insider, Delvey said: "So many people I see are trying to tell my narrative... I just decided to do something on my own".
She added: "I just got out of prison, like two days ago. So it's me getting all this stuff from Sephora, me opening a bank account as soon as I get permission from my parole officer.
"I'm going to see my parole officer Tuesday for the first time. Things like that. It's a way to control what I want to tell."
Fake heiress Delvey has been sharing her antics on social media since leaving jail, teasing the upcoming vlog release with snaps of cameras as they follow her as she goes about her daily life.
"Work work work work work," Anna wrote alongside an image of a cameraman pointing a lense at her in New York City, while alongside another snap she penned: "Doing my own thing. Anna Delvey TV coming soon".
Tyla has contacted Anna for more details.
Born in a small town near Moscow, the scammer moved to New York in 2013 and assumed the identity of Anna Delvey, a wealthy German heiress sitting on a €60 million (£52m) fortune.
In the years that followed, she assimilated herself into the New York social scene, befriending celebrities and conning the rich and famous out of thousands as she went along.
Under the pretence she was an heiress, she'd stay in trendy hotels with newfound acquaintances, eat at award-winning restaurants, and regularly visit spas and salons.
Delvey would get her new acquaintances to foot enormous bills towards lavish holidays and trips they took together, claiming she'd checked her wallet with her luggage or guilting friends into paying by saying her card had been declined.
The con artist would tell them she had difficulty moving her assets overseas and would laugh off her forgetfulness when they hounded her for their money back.
The story about how her family had acquired their fortune would change freeflowingly. To one person, her father was annul executive, to another he was a German diplomat, and to others a solar panel magnate.
She'd create wild stories about how she was planning to lease the historic Church Missions House in New York as a studio and events space and set up an art foundation with her family trust
Eventually, the law caught up with her and she was arrested in 2017.
In 2019, she was convicted of multiple counts of attempted grand larceny, theft of services, and larceny in the second degree, and sentenced to between four and 12 years for her crimes.
In total, Delvey - who came to be known as the Soho Grifter - is thought to have scammed friends and New York businesses out of $275,000 (£220,000).
The 29-year-old has since defended her actions, claiming she "never [planned] on defrauding anyone".
"I feel like it's an insult to my intelligence," she said. "Like the whole case that the prosecutors created against me.
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"They presented me as being this thirsty and greedy. I just had this vision. And it didn't work out."
Alongside the TV series, Delvey told Insider she is releasing a book about her time in prison, where she plans to offer her "take on the criminal justice system", where she claims to have been treated as a "celebrity".
The con artist was paid $320,000 (£229,800) at least from Netflix so that Shonda Rimes could tell her life story.
While she had to return a sizeable chunk because of her criminal activity, this means she still will have been left with a profit.
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