2024-09-05 12:25:05
Con artist Anna Delvey, whose life story inspired the Netflix series Inventing Anna, has signed up to be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.
In the last few years, Delvey – whose real name is Anna Sorokin – has become infamous for her crimes, pretending to be a wealthy socialite in New York.
This year’s Dancing With The Stars cast also includes two Team USA Olympians, rugby player Ilona Maher and gymnastic bronze medallist Stephen Nedoroscik, and Beverly Hills, 90210 actress Tori Spelling.
Also on the dancefloor will be Oscar nominee Eric Roberts and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks.
Sorokin will be paired on the show with professional dancer Ezra Sosa – and will be wearing an ankle monitor as she competes. She has worn the ankle monitor since 2022 when she started her house arrest, AP reported. She has been fighting a deportation order.
Her spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told AP that she was able to travel within 70 miles (110km) of her home and anywhere within New York City under previous house arrest conditions, but could not comment on any changes to those rules.
The fraudster was found guilty in 2019 of theft of services and grand larceny, having scammed more than $200,000 (£145,000) from banks and luxury hotels.
She would tell people she had a $60m (£46m) trust fund and an ambitious project to create an eponymous arts foundation.
But she was, in fact, a recent magazine intern, who came from an ordinary family of Russian immigrants living in Germany.
By staying in expensive hotels and presenting a jet-set life on Instagram, she managed to trick others into believing her fantasy and picking up her bills.
Her story came to international attention in 2018 after a New York Magazine feature by writer Jessica Pressler.
It was then adapted by Shonda Rhimes, the creative force behind Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton and Scandal, in a Netflix series where Sorokin was played by Julia Garner.
Sorokin was paid $320,000 (£230,000) by Netflix for Inventing Anna – but she was not able to keep all the Netflix money, owing to a New York law that prevents criminals from profiting from their notoriety.
“I never asked for Netflix to buy my story, it just happened,” Sorokin told the BBC in 2021, following her release from prison. “And everything else, it just spun out of my control.”
The BBC podcast series Fake Heiress is on BBC Sounds
