Legal battles after Anna Delvey’s Dancing With The Stars debut

Dancing with the Stars is known for its glitz and glamour, and has been a staple of US television for nearly 20 years. But on Tuesday during the season premiere, there will be a twist, when convicted fraudster Anna Delvey – real name Anna Sorokin – sits down wearing a bejeweled ankle monitor.

In a press release, Disney-owned ABC called Sorokin “an artist, icon of fashion and popular NYC society”, and “the infamous ankle bracelet fashionista”. He will be joining a cast including an NBA veteran, reality TV stars, and two Olympians, in the latest US spin-off series from the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing format.

Critics have accused the channel of airing his criminal past. The New York Post called it “pop culture’s new underdog”.

Some also asked how he has the right to live and work in the US, as a German-Russian citizen.

Sorokin’s electronic ankle monitor is not his first crime of 2019, coming after he traveled the world posing as a European heiress, banks including lawyers, lawyers and a private jet company for more than $200,000 (£150,000).

Instead, the ankle watch is the result of a year-long battle for immigrants in the US, where they are fighting deportation.

Online debates are raging over this new chapter of profanity.

Others seem to admire his relentless ambition, as if he represents some kind of twisted American Dream. Some have criticized him for continuing to promote himself and seem unrepentant as a shame.

During a heated discussion on the talk show The View, Whoopi Goldberg said that her ability to appear on Dancing with the Stars, despite facing immigration charges, is an example of a “double immigration system” that favors the rich or connected.

Some say it is not surprising to see his conviction ignored in a country where a criminal is running for the office of president.

Sorokin first gained notoriety when New York Magazine published an investigation into his mistakes in 2018. Her scams were later explored in the Netflix series Inventing Anna and the BBC podcast Fake Heiress.

It was courage that attracted people. He worked his way into elite circles in New York City through years of cunning. His goal was to get a $22m loan to build an art foundation in his name.

While living under the heiress persona, she fabricated bank statements, defaulted on thousands of dollars in hotel bills, walked out of restaurants without paying, forged checks, created fake emails from creditors, and allowed others to pick up her tabs after spending a fortune. Small businesses and individuals are also affected.

“He’s been a celebrity for so long that I don’t think people remember the details of the crime — if they knew it in the first place,” said Jessica Pressler, who wrote the first episode on him. in New York Magazine, and was the inspiration for the fictional journalist character in Inventing Anna.

“People don’t look that far from the outside,” he added, admitting that this contributed to the rift in the first place. “Dancing with the Stars… is a natural extension of the story.”

Sorokin was arrested in 2017 while on the run in California and tried for a crime in New York. In 2019, he was found guilty of eight theft-related offences, and sentenced to between four and 12 years.

That was part of his legal struggle.

After serving nearly four years, including time at the infamous Rikers Island prison, he was released in February 2021, and was expected to leave the US.

But he didn’t go.

Six weeks later – following a series of press appearances and signing a pay TV deal with a German company – the foreigners arrested him by overstaying his visa.

For more than three years, he has been fighting eviction. He has also spent time in prison and under house arrest. In 2022, he was supposed to board a plane from New York and return to Germany. But his lawyer intervened and he did not fly. The case of his deportation is still ongoing, they said.

His asylum claims are unclear, but are believed to be related to his Russian citizenship. He lived there in his early years but his family moved to Germany when he was young. When he was in New York in his 20s, he had a tourist visa.

While under house arrest, Sorokin started his own podcast and did interviews with various media outlets. (Vogue magazine captured a tour of her East Village apartment; Vogue UK wrote a “What Does Anna Delvey Study?” feature.)

“Most of us would be ashamed to do anything he does,” Pressler said, explaining how Sorokin stayed in a hotel for months without paying the bill and flew to Morocco penniless. “From staying in a hotel for months without paying the bills, getting on a plane to Morocco with no money, no one will do that. It does it wholeheartedly. I think that in all people’s interest in him is limited to that.”

“They won’t do these things, they don’t think the things they did are right, but the common man wishes he could have that belief in himself.”

John Sandweg – who served as acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Barack Obama’s presidency – is his current immigration attorney.

He told the BBC that long-term deportation cases are not uncommon in the United States, but this has “taken a long time”.

“His criminal case has also been transferred for a long time and that has had an impact,” he added.

He said his terms of house arrest were “really restrictive”. “We challenged them. He was banned from social media. We said that is against the constitution,” he said. He was not a flight risk or a danger to the public, and he had met his parole conditions, he added.

Because of this challenge, the conditions of his bond were loosened in August. Now she is back on social media and has been allowed to travel to Los Angeles where she is filming Dancing with the Stars. He also has a social security number.

ICE confirmed to the BBC that it had received permission to travel. “The conditions of Anna Sorokin’s release were amended by an immigration judge,” said the spokesperson.

Sorokin had to pay rent while he was under house arrest, but this also caused controversy. His employer filed a lawsuit, saying he failed to pay three months’ rent. Court documents show he said Sorokin owed more than $12,000. The case was finally settled and he got out.

Sorokin has used several lawyers in recent years. Funding is believed to have come from media deals and sales of his prison art.

Netflix controversially paid Sorokin $320,000 (£230,000) for her life story for its Inventing Anna series. After government intervention, he was legally forced to use some of that money to pay back the victims of his theft. But there was some money left to pay his lawyer in the first case.

Netflix is ​​facing a defamation lawsuit, stemming from the series.

The case was brought by Sorokin’s former friend Rachel Williams, who was featured on the show.

Williams wrote the book My Friend Anna about their short-lived friendship and how it fell apart after she was left with $62,000 in cash at a luxury resort in Morocco.

The lawsuit claims that Netflix used her real name and biographical details in its Inventing Anna series, but she was unfairly portrayed as a “bad and despicable person”.

Netflix, in an effort to dismiss the lawsuit, said its description of Williams was open to “reading license” and protected by the First Amendment, according to Variety magazine.

Sorokin is not involved in that case, although he was called as a witness in the case.

Williams’ lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told the BBC that the case is expected to go to trial next year.

He said Sorokin’s employment on Dancing with the Stars “showcased and minimized the crimes he committed, and lessened the impact on the people he hurt”.

In court, Sorokin was found not guilty of the charge related to the trip to Morocco. American Express eventually gave Williams a refund, but only after much suffering and anxiety, according to her letter.

While some view Sorokin as an anti-establishment hero for stepping in and shaming wealthy institutions, William didn’t see it that way. He previously told the BBC: “The show that Anna wanted to undermine…

In response to the latest controversy, Dancing with the Stars manager Conrad Green told Variety: “Yeah, [Sorokin] he’s had the problems he’s had, but we’ve had other people on the show who have had criminal problems in the past. He served his time. I think it’s legitimate for him to be on the show.”