Anna Sorokin, the con artist who was convicted of swindling banks, hotels and friends in 2019 after falsely building a reputation as a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey, has found her newest venture: Dancing With the Stars.
Sorokin was described as the “notorious ankle bracelet fashionista” in a press release.
Complicating Sorokin’s latest starring role is the ankle bracelet she’s worn since October 2022, when she started her house arrest — though the show appears to be leaning into it with a promo image of Sorokin in a glittering dress and an ankle monitor on her leg.
While she was released from prison in February 2021, immigration authorities picked her up shortly after she got out, claiming she overstayed her visa and must be returned to her native Germany.
The Inventing Anna inspiration was in ICE custody for over a year before a judge cleared the way for her to switch to home confinement in October 2022 while she fights the deportation case.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not returned requests for comment regarding changes to Sorokin’s house arrest conditions to accommodate filming in the Los Angeles area.
Sorokin’s spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, confirmed that she could travel within 112 kilometres of her home base and anywhere in the five boroughs of New York City under previous house arrest conditions, but could not comment on any changes to those rules.
While under house arrest, she had to abide by the immigration judge’s condition that she does not use social media, but Sorokin kept busy. She started a podcast —The Anna Delvey Show— that featured guests.
“So many people became famous for bad things and were able to kind of segue it into something different,” she said in a June 2023 interview with The Associated Press.
Dancing With the Stars is the first mainstream way Sorokin is attempting to accomplish that goal.
