FAKE heiress Anna “Delvey” Sorokin – who was jailed for scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks, hotels and friends in 2019, and who inspired a hit series on Netflix – is to be extradited to Germany, said US media.

The German-Russian citizen managed to deceive New York’s elites by posing as a wealthy heiress in 2016 and 2017, when in fact she was the daughter of a truck driver from the suburbs of Moscow.

Sorokin, 31, who carried out her scams under the assumed name of “Anna Delvey”, was due to be put on a flight to Frankfurt yesterday after being released from a detention centre in the state of New York, said the tabloid New York Post, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Sorokin was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison, but was released for good behavior in February 2021, only to be arrested again the next month for overstaying her visa. She was held in a facility by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE.

An ICE spokesman told AFP that Sorokin “remains in ICE custody pending removal”, without providing further detail.

Capable of weaving skillful lies with extraordinary aplomb, the young woman posed as a German heiress with a fortune of US$60 million (RM252 million), allowing her to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in loans from several banks.

Between November 2016 and August 2017, she travelled for free by private jet and lived on credit in Manhattan hotels, without ever paying anything, according to the New York Justice Department, which estimated her frauds are worth about US$275,000.

Sorokin, the daughter of a Russian truck driver and a tradeswoman who emigrated to Germany in 2007, even tried to obtain a loan of US$22 million to launch a select club in Manhattan. She arrived in New York in 2013.

Her incredible story seduced television producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal), who made it into a mini-series for Netflix. Inventing Anna puts Julia Garner in the title role.

According to media reports, Sorokin received US$320,000 dollars from the streaming giant. – AFP, March 15, 2022.