CNN
—
Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” is based on, was launched from ICE detention on Friday.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Sorokin, confirmed her launch in an e mail to CNN Friday evening.
“She’s going to stay below the supervision of ICE, however will be capable to combat her deportation free from bodily custody,” mentioned John Sandweg, a former performing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who’s on Sorokin’s authorized group.
Immigration Decide Charles Conroy cleared the way for Sorokin’s release earlier this week, setting her bond at $10,000 and requiring her to comply with sure circumstances. Amongst them: staying off social media and remaining on the identical residential deal with 24 hours a day whereas her case proceeds.
The choose’s ruling additionally mentioned ICE might use an ankle monitor to maintain tabs on Sorokin.
A spokesman for ICE mentioned Sorokin was being launched Friday after the choose’s ruling.
She’d been in ICE detention for 17 months, in accordance with her lawyer – principally on the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York, about 60 miles from New York Metropolis.
“We’re grateful that the Court docket agreed that her continued detention is pointless,” Sandweg mentioned in a press release Friday.
Sorokin was discovered responsible of stealing greater than $200,000 from banks and pals whereas scamming her approach into New York society, the Manhattan District Attorney said after her 2019 conviction.
Her case drew widespread consideration after a 2018 New York magazine article.
That article grew to become the idea of Shonda Rhimes’ “Inventing Anna,” a dramatization that released on Netflix in February and shortly became one of the streamer’s most popular shows. Actress Julia Garner, greatest recognized for her Emmy-winning function as Ruth on “Ozark,” performed Sorokin.
The present ends with Sorokin’s conviction. However in actual life, the drama has continued.
Sorokin was launched from jail in February 2021 after serving almost 4 years on theft and larceny costs. But it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than she ended up again behind bars.
ICE took custody of Sorokin on March 25, 2021. In November, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted an emergency keep in her case, in accordance with ICE. She’s been preventing her deportation – and likewise joined a gaggle of plaintiffs suing the company earlier this 12 months, alleging they’d requested and been denied Covid booster pictures whereas in custody. They dropped their lawsuit in March after receiving the pictures, in accordance with court docket information.
Whereas she’s been detained, frequent posts have been made on Sorokin’s social media accounts. Not too long ago they’ve highlighted Sorokin’s paintings, which was featured in a New York present in Might.
Earlier this 12 months an lawyer representing Sorokin told NBC News that he feared her deportation when he couldn’t attain her, however phrase later emerged that she was nonetheless in ICE custody.
Quickly afterward, Sorokin spoke out from behind bars, telling the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she by no means claimed to be a German heiress.
“I used to be from Germany, which was true, however no person ever requested me about my job,” Sorokin mentioned. “No person asks who’re your dad and mom and the way a lot cash do they make. It’s simply outrageous.”
She advised host Alex Cooper that she by no means “advised any mindless lies.”
However she admitted – kind of – to mendacity about her standing and background.
“I suppose I did,” she mentioned. “I imply, I can’t inform an actual occasion, however I’m certain.”
Sorokin additionally mentioned she was stunned by the general public’s fascination together with her story.
“It was simply actually a shock to me that folks could be, like, so focused on the best way I went concerning the issues, as a result of it simply made a lot sense to me,” she mentioned.
