Anna Sorokin -- who is also known as Anna Delvey -- was released from prison earlier this month.
Days after Anna Sorokin -- also known as Anna Devley -- was released from prison, she did her first televised interview. Sorokin sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper and spoke about her regrets and what she's learned from her past.
"I feel so sorry for a lot of the choices I've made," she said. "I also feel like I've learned a lot and grew as a person."
Sorokin is a convicted scam artist who was arrested in 2017 and two years later was found guilty of grand larceny for stealing over $200,000 in a scheme in which she defrauded some of New York City’s social elites and financial institutions by convincing them she was an heiress worth millions of dollars.
While Sorokin didn't seem to have much remorse for the financial institutions she took advantage of, she insisted that she's learned from her mistakes. "I definitely did [take advantage of people]," the 31-year-old told Tapper. "I was younger and I've learned from my mistakes."
"But did you?" Tapper asked, to which Sorokin reiterated her initial comments, saying she has and that she's "absolutely not" going to do anything else like this ever again.
When Tapper asked Sorokin why she chose to spend an additional 18 months in immigration detention instead of choosing to return to Europe and be free, she explained, "I feel like if I were to leave and say, ‘Oh, whatever, I’m just going to move on and like move to Europe,’ I would be like accepting the labels that they are trying to slap on me. I feel like I deserve a second chance. It was my mistake that I made and I served my time and I feel like I should deserve a second opportunity.”
Despite having to remain under house arrest and wear an ankle monitor, Sorokin told Tapper she's "so happy" to have been released from detention. "I feel like I’m getting a second chance to fix my mistakes."
Sorokin still blames the prosecution in her 2019 trial and the media for how she is portrayed as a scam artist. "They kind of created this idea of me and I’m just being left to deal with it,” Sorokin said. "I’m trying to not glamorize my crimes and not lead anybody to believe that’s the way to get famous. Because I suffered a lot as a result … even though I don’t always show it. I’m not going to go on TV and cry.”
Sorokin's defense attorney, Manny Arora, confirmed to ET last week that she was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in New York, where she will remain under house arrest as her deportation case continues.
"After 17 months of immigration detention, an immigration judge recognized that immigration detention was no longer necessary for Anna and ordered her release subject to various conditions of supervision," John Sandweg, another of Sorokin's attorneys, told ET at the time. "This ruling does not mean that Anna will get a free pass. She will continue to face deportation proceedings and her release will be closely monitored by ICE and the State of New York. Nevertheless, as the court found, Anna does not pose such a risk that continued detention was necessary."
Sorokin's story was the subject of a Vanity Fair article in 2018 that ultimately became the storyline of Shonda Rhimes' Netflix series, Inventing Anna, in 2021.
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