Fake German heiress taken into US custody, faces deportation

NEW YORK — U.S. immigration authorities said Thursday they have detained Anna Sorokin, the con artist who passed herself off as a wealthy German heiress and served more than three years behind bars for defrauding New York banks and hotels. Sorokin, who finagled her way into the Manhattan elite using the name Anna Delvey, remained in New Jersey’s Bergen County Jail days after she was scheduled to be deported to her native Germany. The delay could mean the one-time darling of New York’s social scene is challenging her deportation, which has been in the works since she was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of larceny and theft. Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and defrauded financial institutions and Manhattan celebrities into believing she had a fortune of $67 million overseas that could cover her high-end clothing and lavish hotel stays.