MANILA, Philippines — Totally based on a true story, new Netflix miniseries “Inventing Anna” charts the rise and fall of fake German heiress and legendary con artist Anna Delvey, who deceived Manhattan’s wealthy elite between 2013 to 2017, scamming over $200,000.
The series follows journalist Vivian Kent (played by Anna Chlumsky) as she investigates the case of Anna Delvey (played by Julia Garner), a German-Russian who pretended to be an heiress to an oil company, or sometimes a solar panel company, to scam banks, luxury hotels and New York's wealthy circle.
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Created by Shonda Rhimes, the nine-episode limited series is based on the article by Jessica Pressler. The full series will premiere via Netflix on February 11.
Born Anna Sorokin, the fake socialite is actually a daughter of a Russian truck driver and a former store owner turned homemaker. Anna's scam was first exposed in a New York Times article back in 2018.
In May 2019, the 30-year-old fraudster was convicted on eight counts, including grand larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution. But after serving four years, she was released in February 2021 on good behavior.
Sorokin came up with an interesting solution to pay restitution to the victims of her schemes: after selling the rights to her story to Netflix and Shondaland, the profits would first be used to pay her victims back. One of her victims, Rachel Williams, whom she saddled with a $62,000 hotel bill during a prolonged stay in Morocco, has written a book detailing her experiences with Sorokin.
Williams' book is being adapted by HBO Max for a separate limited series soon.