Anna Sorokin, a woman who once pretended to be a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey to swindle friends and banks out of tens of thousands of dollars, is out of prison.
After serving nearly four years, she was released on parole Thursday from the Albion Correctional Facility in upstate New York, according to Department of Corrections records.
In April 2019, Sorokin, 30, was convicted by a Manhattan jury on four counts of theft services, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny. She was acquitted of grand larceny and attempted grand larceny, according to The Associated Press.
A month later, New York Judge Diane Kiesel sentenced Sorokin to four to 12 years in prison, saying she was “stunned by the depth of the defendant’s deception.”
Prosecutors said Sorokin convinced friends and businesses to give her money to fund her lavish lifestyle by falsely claiming that her father was a diplomat or an oil baron, and she had a fortune of more than $60 million overseas.
In one instance, she promised a friend an all-expense-paid trip to Morocco but left her pal with the $62,000 bill, prosecutors alleged. Another time, Sorokin persuaded a bank to lend her $100,000, which she never paid back.
Sorokin was also accused of forging financial documents in an attempt to get a $22 million loan for a private arts club she wanted to open.
Sorokin’s lies allowed her to steal around $275,000, including a $35,400 bill for a flight she chartered to and from Nebraska, prosecutors said.
Before she was sentenced, Sorokin addressed the court, saying: “I apologize for the mistakes I made.”
Last month, Sorokin paid restitution to her victims using $320,000 she received from Netflix, which acquired the rights to adapt her life story into a limited series, the Insider reported.
As a German citizen, Sorokin faces deportation back to her home country after authorities said she overstayed her visa.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
