Anna Sorokin admitted that defrauding banks was wrong, but doesn't think she owes them an apology.- "That was definitely unethical, yes," Sorokin said on the NBC News NOW Thursday morning. "Who would I be apologizing to for that?"
Anna Sorokin, also known as
In an interview that first aired on NBC News NOW Thursday morning, host Savannah Sellers asked Sorokin, who was convicted in a scam in which she pretended to be an heiress with a $60 million fortune, if she thought defrauding banks was wrong.
"That was definitely unethical, yes," Sorokin said. "I would not encourage anybody else to follow in my footsteps."
But when asked if she feels she owes anyone an apology, including those at the banks, Sorokin, who is currently in immigration detention at Orange County Jail in upstate New York, rejected the idea.
"You mean, for what? I'm not a 12-year-old kid apologizing," she said. "Who would I be apologizing to for that?"
In her years-long scheme to appear as a New York City socialite, Sorokin created fake identities and email addresses to lie to banks and used a voice disguising app to conduct her business.
Sorokin said she doesn't think the banks care whether she apologizes.
"I never really had any malicious intent, and I'm not just like this vicious, scamming person trying to take advantage of anybody who is just stupid enough to fall for it," Sorokin said.
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Sorokin first rose to fame in 2018, after articles were published by New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, and the New York Post about her attempts to con financial institutions out of money by pretending to be a wealthy German heiress. The New York magazine article by journalist Jessica Pressler went on to inspire the Netflix series "Inventing Anna."
Sorokin was eventually arrested in Los Angeles, and a jury convicted Sorokin on charges of theft, larceny, and attempted theft and larceny in May 2019.
The "fake heiress" was released from a New York jail in February 2021 after serving about three-and-a-half years in prison.
Sorokin is now in ICE custody due to immigration issues. She shared her thoughts about the Netflix show as well as her experience behind bars in a February essay for Insider.