Inventing Anna comes under fire from reviewers for turning scammer into ‘girlboss’ cult figure

Why is Netflix celebrating the ‘fake heiress’? Inventing Anna comes under fire from reviewers for turning scammer into ‘girlboss’ cult figure while painting victims as ‘idiots’

Shonda Rhimes’ drama Inventing Anna was released on streaming service todayTells story of Anna Sorokin, the fraudster known as the ‘fake heiress’ Anna DelveyShe conned New York society and hotels out of $275,000 before being exposedReviews claim glamourised version of story is turning criminal into cult figure



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Critics have rounded on the new Netflix series Inventing Anna, which tells the story of Anna Sorokin, a fraudster better known as ‘fake heiress’ Anna Delvey, for glorifying the $275,000 con artist, while painting her victims as ‘idiots’. 

Released on the streaming service today, Shonda Rhimes’ latest drama reveals how Sorokin posed as a rich Russian socialite to scam New York high society, leaving friends out of pocket and a trail of unpaid hotel bills in her wake before being exposed.  

The series, starring Ozark’s Julia Garner as the titular character, is told through the eyes of journalist Vivian (Anna Chlumsky) and begins with Megan Thee Stallion’s Rich playing over footage of articles about Anna going to press.    

While the grifter is instantly portrayed as egoistical and self-obsessed – the show begins by highlighting how the scammer was turned into a cult figure on social media, with devotees hailing her ‘iconic’. 

Now reviewers have criticised the portrayal of Anna as a ‘feminist girlboss’ while her victims – the upper echelon of New York society – appear to be gullible and ‘idiotic’ for falling into her traps.  

Shonda Rhimes’ drama Inventing Anna was released on Netflix today with Ozark’s Julia Garner as the titular character

Shonda Rhimes’ latest drama reveals how Anna Sorokin (pictured in 2019) scammed New York society and hotels out of $275,000 before being exposed as a con artist

Sorokin, a Russian born German who moved to the US in 2013, would befriend wealthy socialites before conning them out of thousands of dollars under the promise she would transfer funds from Germany.  

She was charged with grand larceny and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for her crimes in 2019. However she was released early for good behaviour in February last year and now temporarily lives at the NoMad luxury hotel in New York.  

As The Times‘ Ben Dowell points out, Sorokin is portrayed as ‘misunderstood’ while each episode of the drama ‘scrutinises’ each victim who was impacted by Anna’s scams. 

‘If you think this suspect-by-suspect approach sounds in keeping with a generally moralising tone, you’d be right, but this is not finger-waggy in the way you might expect’, he wrote. 

Sorokin, a Russian born German who moved to the US in 2013, would befriend wealthy socialites before conning them out of thousands of dollars. Garner is pictured in the Netflix series 

She was charged with grand larceny and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for her crimes in 2019. However she was released early for good behaviour in February last year. Garner is pictured in the Netflix series

‘If anything, Julia Garner’s Anna ends this show as its heroine, or at least someone we suddenly find we’re meant to be rooting for.’ 

From the beginning of the series, Anna is painted as an underdog up against the snobbish New York elite – with opening scenes showing a victim of Sorkin’s dismissing the impact of her crimes by asking: ‘Who else would be interested in lowly Anna Sorokin’. 

Meanwhile, the I‘s Emily Baker agrees the show is ‘undoubtedly soft on Delvey’ with minimal emphasis on the real life impact of her crimes and pointing out she was paid $320,000 to sell her story to Netflix.   

‘Often, Vivian is impressed with her gall – in committing only white-collar crimes against those who could afford it, the scammer is given a pass’, she writes. 

‘Delvey (both in real life and in the show) has spoken about being a hustler, a young woman making it in the big bad capitalistic world in the face of sexism. Inventing Anna turns her into the 2010s girl boss feminist she pretends to be.’  

The story is told through the eyes of journalist Vivian (Anna Chlumsky) and begins with Megan Thee Stallion’s Rich playing over footage of articles about Anna going to press

Garner and Chlumsky are pictured in the show speaking about the scammer’s crimes in prison. One reviewer pointed out Sorokin was paid $320,000 to sell her story to Netflix

Dowell continues to point out that her victims are characterised as ‘idiots’ who are taken in by Sorkin and fail to realise she is Russian ‘despite her absurd James Bond villainess accent.’   

NME’s Ralph Jones also claimed the show ‘fails to humanise Delvey’ and that making her seem like an ‘idiot with a ridiculous accent’ only serves to make viewers believe it would have been near impossible to lured in by the con artist. 

Writing for Refinery 29, Maybelle Morgan agrees the drama ‘certainly isn’t empathetic to Delvey’s victims’ who are seen primarily enjoying expensive workout classes and hotel bars.  

‘Portrayed as shrill and almost deserving of the white collar felonies, it really homes in on the fact that there was mainly such a hurrah because of the public humiliation of being so readily deceived. After all, who dares embarrass the New York glitterati?, she writes.  

‘With the combination of Garner’s bizarre accent and some overacting from Anna Chlumsky it feels like a lacklustre non-starter which uses the girlboss agenda – in a post-girlboss world – to rile our spirits.’ 

Anna Delvey: The fake heiress who conned New York high society

Sorokin was born in Russia in 1991 and moved to Germany in 2007 when she was 16 with her younger brother and parents. 

Her father had worked as a truck driver and later as an executive at a transport company until it became insolvent in 2013. He then opened a heating-and-cooling business specializing in energy-efficient devices. 

After moving to London to attend Central Saint Martins fashion school, Sorokin returned to Berlin and interned in the fashion department of a public relations firm.

She then relocated to Paris where she secured a coveted internship at the French fashion magazine Purple. It’s believed to be around this time that she changed her name from Sorokin to Delvey.  

Jailed: Fake heiress Anna Sorokin was jailed for swindling banks, hotels and members of New York high society out of $275,000

Sorokin was already brushing shoulders with rich people in the years before she came to New York and started dazzling Manhattan’s social elite.

Acquaintances say Sorokin had spent several years playing the part of an art-obsessed German heiress across the world.

She rubbed shoulders with the fashion elite at Paris Fashion Week as early as 2013 and was frequently spotted at London nightspots like the Chiltern Firehouse and Loulou’s. 

By the time Sorokin arrived in New York in early 2016, she seemingly had the social connections to make a name for herself, as well as a designer-clad wardrobe that exuded wealth.

At the time, she had 40,000 followers on Instagram and was regularly pictured at events and parties with well-to-do people.

She quickly went about proving herself to be an impossibly rich heiress who had plans to shake up New York’s art world.

Anna Delvey a.k.a. Anna Sorokin during her trip to Morocco

She made a show of proving she belonged and would regularly be decked out in her now signature Celine glasses, Gucci sandals and high-end buys from Net-a-Porter and Elyse Walker.

Sorokin rented a $400-a-night room for several months at Manhattan’s expensive 11 Howard hotel and was often seen to pass out $100 tips to concierges and Uber drivers.  

She would also splash out on shopping sprees in luxury boutiques, expensive personal training sessions and beautician appointments.

The socialite elite were drawn to her and she would regularly host large dinners for celebrities, artists, CEOs and the like at the lavish Le Coucou restaurant in SoHo.

Sorokin kept up the heiress ruse when she went looking for a $22 million loan to fund her new club in November 2016. 

Her fall from grace seemingly began when she was kicked out of the 11 Howard hotel in New York in early 2017, after racking up $30,000 of charges and failing to provide a working credit card. 

Around the same time she also chartered a private plane for a trip to Nebraska to try and meet billionaire Warren Buffet. 

However, the $35,400 bill was never paid so the charter company cancelled the return leg of her journey. 

Upon her return to New York, she was evicted from the 11 Howard hotel and moved to the Mercer hotel around the corner. 

She subsequently embarked on a $62,000 extravagant trip to Morocco. Her friend, a former Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Deloache Williams paid for the flights on her work credit card with the assumption she would be reimbursed as promised by Sorokin.  

They checked into a $7,000-a-night villa at the five star resort La Mamounia, which Williams also paid for, after Sorokin promised to pay her back when they returned to New York.  

The six-day trip was without hiccups for several days until the hotel staff insisted on putting a credit card on file because Sorokin had booked their trip without a working one. 

Williams, who said she had $410 in her checking account at the time said the $70,000 balance was more than she earned in a year.  

After months of hassling her for the money, Williams reported Sorokin to police and then the New York district attorney’s office.   

Sorokin was then arrested in October 2017 for stealing $275,000 through multiple scams between November 2016 and August 2017.    

At a parole board hearing in October 2019, Sorokin apologized for her crimes for the first time. 

‘I just want to say that I’m really ashamed and I’m really sorry for what I did,’ she said according to the transcript of the hearing, the New York Post reported. 

‘I completely understand that a lot of people suffered when I thought I was not doing anything wrong.’ 

Sorokin was released from prison on 11 February 2021. 

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