Anna Sorokin - AKAAnna Delvey - is inICE custody, an agency official confirmed to Insider.- Her fashion collaborator told Insider he's still moving forward with their apparel line.
- It's unclear why ICE jailed the German national six weeks after her release from prison.
US
Sorokin, the scammer and German national who pretended to be a fake heiress with the name Anna Delvey, has been in the agency's custody since March 25, an ICE official confirmed to Insider. The New York Post first reported the news.
Sorokin reported to
As Insider first reported, Sorokin overstayed her visa and was at risk of deportation at the conclusion of her criminal case. She was convicted in April 2019 on several counts of larceny and theft stemming from a scheme where she pretended to be a wealthy German heiress and swindled banks and other institutions out of their money while floating around Manhattan's SoHo scene.
She was released in February of this year and promptly made a splash, sitting for interviews, feuding with photographers from the Post and the Daily Mail, and teasing an apparel line with former Hood By Air designer Paul Cupo.
Reached Thursday, Cupo told Insider he wasn't aware Sorokin was in ICE custody until the Post article was published. He said he planned to move forward with the apparel line.
"We still have a goal in motion and she's gonna be happy to see progress done while she's unavailable," he said. "I'm definitely not about to abandon her or the project because of a minor speed bump."
Sorokin previously told Insider she planned to sell NFTs of her blog posts written from prison. She also gained income from selling the rights to her life story to Netflix for a project starring Julia Garner, which is expected to be released later this year. Most of the proceeds from that sale went to paying back her victims and legal fees, as Insider reported.
Court records show Sorokin also signed a $20,000 deal with a German production company, infoNetwork, that has not been previously reported.
What happens to Sorokin next is unclear
It's not clear why ICE took Sorokin into custody now.
She had been out of prison for six weeks, court records show she had been reporting to her parole officer, and she recently rented an apartment in Manhattan.
Sorokin's appeals attorney, Audrey Thomas, is appealing her criminal case, arguing that courts should have considered the money she took a civil matter. Legal experts told Insider convicted criminals who are foreign nationals should be able to remain in the US while their cases are on direct appeal.
Sorokin was scheduled to be put on a plane on March 26, according to the New York Post, but ultimately wasn't.
Court records show that Sorokin was still in the US as of March 29, and that ICE denied Thomas' request to block her removal that same day.
A representative for ICE told Insider the agency "will not be releasing any information on this individual at this time."
In an interview with Insider shortly after her release from prison, Sorokin said she planned to write a book about the pointlessness of the US criminal justice system.
"I feel like it's insane," she said. "To take people, to lock them up, take everything away from them and just to expect them to reform. What is that supposed to do for you?"