Fake heiress Anna Delvey has had her deportation from the United States back to Germany delayed, a report says.
The convicted scammer, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, has been held in an ICE detention centre in upstate New York for a year following her release from prison.
Authorities had planned to put 31-year-old on a flight from New York to Frankfurt on Monday night, according to The New York Post, but her lawyers filed a motion to stay the deportation.
“The motion to stay the deportation was filed yesterday afternoon. Until we get a ruling from the appeal to stay the deportation, there won’t be much else to report,” her lawyer Manny Arora told the newspaper.
And he added: “I spoke to Anna this morning. She was confused and a little concerned.
“It’s hard (for her) to understand all the bureaucracy, especially given she’s locked up in jail for 20-plus hours a day and doesn’t have control. When you don’t know what your future holds, when you can’t call people when you want to to get information, it makes you anxious and frustrated. She’s staying positive, but it’s hard on her.”
The Independent has reached out to ICE for comment.
She was convicted in 2019 of one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft services for scamming more than $200,000 from luxury New York hotels, banks and other institutions.
After her release from prison in February 2021, she was free for several weeks before being taken back into custody by ICE for violating the terms of her visa. She had appealed her deportation and was due to have hearing next month.
She has been at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York, since March 2021 and she and three other detainees had sued ICE after they got Covid-19 while in custody.
Her case was given the Shonda Rhimes treatment in February in the TV show Inventing Anna starring Ozark actor Julia Garner.
She arrived in New York City in 2013 to set up a high-end members-only arts club, her defence lawyer Todd Spodek told the jury in her criminal case.
During her time in the city she claimed to be a German heiress, but in fact Anna Sorokin was born in Domodedovo, near Moscow.
Her father, Vadim Sorokin, was a truck driver, while her mother owned a store and the the family moved to Germany in 2007, when Sorokin was 16.
Neffatari Davis told The New York Post that her best friend had used the money she made from the Netflix show to pay back her debts.
“She got out on good behavior and she used the money Netflix gave her to pay everybody back, she owes no money,” Ms Davis said.
“She’s paid for her crimes, she didn’t kill anyone. She did wrong, but, at the end of the day, there are people who have done worse.”
