Everything You Need To Know About Netflix’s Inventing Anna

Netflix has a new upcoming series for all of us to binge! Based on Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People, the limited series Inventing Anna will revolve around Russian-born twenty-something named Anna Sorokin. She rebranded herself as Anna Delvey, a wealthy German heiress. Just in case you didn’t know, she also conned her way into an extravagant lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with the city’s elite.

She tricked New York’s wealthiest into believing a lie, defrauding more than $200-thousand along the way. Inventing Anna remains one of the many shows Shonda Rhimes continues to develop for Netflix (Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, etc.). Alongside Shondaland’s Betsy Beers and Pressler herself, she wrote a ten-episode script to tell the con-woman’s unbelievable story.

Anna Sorokin, Russian-born twenty-something conning her way through New York City’s elite

Everything You Need To Know About Netflix’s Inventing Anna

The real story.

When Anna Sorokin moved to New York in 2014, she created a whole new, entirely fake persona for herself. She created Anna Delvey, a millionaire heiress who settled nicely into New York’s elite socialite crowd. She maintained a life of luxury. Anna lived month after month in five-star hotels, tipping hundred dollar bills to hospitality staff, and going to lunches at the most exclusive restaurants in New York City. But, of course, none of it was real and five years later, Anna was arrested.

Her deception became public in May 2018 when journalist Jessica Pressler published an article. The reports also detail how she claimed to have access to a multi-million dollar trust fund from her wealthy family. She used this falsehood to plan the development of a Soho House-esque private members club, hire a private jet, host exclusive parties, and live out of a luxurious hotel. In reality, Anna’s father isn’t an affluent antiques-dealer or a diplomat to Russia. He was reportedly an ex-truck driver who runs a heating-and-cooling business.

The sentencing.

In May 2019, Anna Sorokin was sentenced to a minimum of four years in jail – with the possibility of twelve – for theft at Manhattan Supreme Court. The amount of time she actually serves will depend on her behavior in prison. Anna’s defense lawyers’ claims that she had no true criminal intent; that she merely tried to make it in the city. They also claimed that she had only lied to buy time. Both of which the judge denied. Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw said Anna had shown “almost no remorse” and deserved to be imprisoned.