Anna Sorokin, the real-life ‘Inventing Anna,’ has been released from prison.
Anna Sorokin, the inspiration for Netflix’s “Inventing Anna,” was released from ICE custody on Friday.
Sorokin’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, verified her release in an email to CNN on Friday night.
“She will stay under ICE supervision, but will be able to fight her deportation without being physically detained,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who is on Sorokin’s legal team.
Immigration Judge Charles Conroy granted Anna Sorokin’s release earlier this week, setting her bond at $10,000 and imposing certain conditions. Among them are keeping off social media and staying at the same address 24 hours a day while her case is being handled.
The judge’s decision also stated that ICE may deploy an ankle monitor to keep track on Anna Sorokin.
According to an ICE official, Sorokin was released on Friday following the judge’s decision.
According to her attorney, she had been detained by ICE for 17 months, principally at the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York, some 60 miles from New York City.
“We are grateful that the Court agreed that her continued detention is unnecessary,” Sandweg said in a statement Friday.
Sorokin was convicted in 2019 of stealing more than $200,000 from banks and acquaintances while defrauding her way into New York society, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.
Her case gained national notice following a 2018 New York magazine piece.
That piece served as the inspiration for Shonda Rhimes’ “Inventing Anna,” a Netflix dramatisation that debuted in February and immediately became one of the service’s most popular episodes. Sorokin was played by Julia Garner, best known for her Emmy-winning role as Ruth on “Ozark.”
She filed a lawsuit against ICE for Covid boosters.
The episode concludes with Sorokin’s conviction. However, the drama has persisted in real life.
Sorokin was freed from prison in February 2021 after nearly four years in prison on theft and larceny charges. But it wasn’t long before she was back in jail.
On March 25, 2021, ICE assumed charge of Sorokin. According to ICE, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted an emergency stay in her case in November. She has been battling her deportation, and she also joined a group of plaintiffs who sued the government earlier this year, alleging they were denied Covid booster doses while in detention. According to court records, they dropped their complaint in March after getting the injections.
Sorokin’s social media pages have been updated frequently while she has been incarcerated. They recently highlighted Sorokin’s artwork, which was shown in a May show in New York.
An attorney for Sorokin told NBC News earlier this year that he feared her deportation when he couldn’t reach her, but it eventually emerged that she was still in ICE detention.
In a podcast interview, she spoke up from behind bars.
Soon after, while behind bars, Sorokin told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she never claimed to be a German heiress.
“I was from Germany, which was true, but nobody ever asked me about my job,” Sorokin said. “Nobody asks who are your parents and how much money do they make. It’s just outrageous.”
She told host Alex Cooper that she never “told any senseless lies.”
But she admitted – sort of – to lying about her status and background.
“I guess I did,” she said. “I mean, I cannot tell an exact instance, but I’m sure.”
Sorokin also said she was surprised by the public’s fascination with her story.
“It was just really a surprise to me that people would be, like, so interested in the way I went about the things, because it just made so much sense to me,” she said.