The fake heiress and star of Netflix's Inventing Anna, Anna Sorokin, is being deported back to Germany next week after she tried to apply for asylum in the United States.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is scheduled to send Sorokin back home on a flight from New York. She was convicted of fraud in the U.S. and will be with officials until she lands back on her home soil, according to Spiegel Panorama.
Sorokin, 31, pretended to be a wealthy heiress with a $60 million trust fund while defrauding major financial institutions, hotels and New York City socialites out of more than $200,000, as portrayed on the Netflix show. She was convicted in 2019 and served just under four years in prison before she was released in February 2021 for good behavior.
One month later, she was taken back into custody by ICE for overstaying her visa. She was set to be deported back in March 2021, which she tried to prevent from happening by applying for asylum in the United States, Spiegel Panorama reported. In November 2021, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) granted Sorokin's emergency stay request.
However, Spiegel Panorama has reported Sorokin's attempts to stay in the U.S. have failed and the court denied her request for asylum. The fake heiress will now be set to head back to Germany.
Newsweek reached out to ICE, which would not confirm whether Sorokin is being deported back to Germany next week. In an email, the agency said she "remains in ICE custody pending removal."
Newsweek reached out to Sorokin's lawyer for comment.
Sorokin has no known outstanding allegations against her in Germany. She could return to a semi-regular life in the country, with some money left over from her Netflix deal.
The streaming service paid Sorokin $320,000 for the rights to her life story to be adapted into the TV miniseries Inventing Anna. Sorokin already used $199,000 to pay restitution to banks, $24,000 for New York state fines and $75,000 in attorney fees but will likely owe more until all of her legal proceedings have concluded, Insider reported.
The Netflix drama series shows the timeline of Sorokin's life as "Anna Delvey" and is based on journalist Jessica Pressler's New York magazine article that brought Sorokin fame, according to Insider. The show has been successful on the streaming service and reportedly had the most hours viewed for an English-language series since Netflix's reporting data was updated last year.
Update 3/11/22, 12:06 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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