Dancing with a Con Artist

In 2014, a German heiress by the name Anna Delvey moved from Germany to New York City and quickly worked her way into the exclusive circle of the Big Apple’s upper class elites. She quickly established herself as an up-and-coming New York socialite, and even created the Anna Delvey Foundation — a private art club that enticed wealthy donors and further validated her name among the elites. For three years, she thrived making connections with investors, dabbling in the art scene, and posting about her parties and travels in extravagant hotels on social media. Suddenly — seemingly out of nowhere — she was arrested.

Turns out, the German heiress Anna Delvey does not exist. The woman who introduced herself to the world as Anna Delvey is actually named Anna Sorokin, and for three years, she scammed everyone into believing her illusion of wealth. Sorokin was born in Russia and spent her childhood growing up in Germany. Since moving to New York City, she swindled banks, hotels, and even her friends by using invalid credit cards and bank statements to appear as if she had a never-ending supply of money. However, in October 2017, her lies were exposed to the world when she was arrested and put on trial. During her prosecution, it was estimated that she stole approximately $275,000 and was charged with grand larceny in the first degree, grand larceny in the second degree, and theft of services. Anna Delvey, the German heiress, was now Anna Delvey, the Con Artist. From her charges, the court ordered her to be sentenced to 4-12 years in prison. Sorokin spent a little over four years in jail before her release in February 2021, but a month later she was taken into custody by ICE for overstaying her visa. She was released from the ICE facility a year later under the condition that she had to remain under house arrest. By no means did Sorokin let the ankle monitor slow her down, as she released both a song and a podcast in 2023, and became active on social media once again (Gibson 2024).

At this point, you may be thinking to yourself: “Why does anybody care what she did? She stole a couple hundred thousand dollars — so what?” Well, her current Instagram following of 1.1 million followers shows that people really do care, and it may be attributed to the 2022 Netflix limited series titled Inventing Anna. Yes, Netflix actually decided to create and release a show based off of the fraudster’s story (though it’s nothing new for the streaming service to commodify criminals’ images for media, so this shouldn’t be a surprise). It is also important to mention that Netflix paid Sorokin $320,000 to adapt the rights to her life story, but instead of taking the money and running, this time around Sorokin wisely chose to pay off the fines and restitution she owed like a responsible adult. Although Inventing Anna was successful, it was subjected to much controversy and mixed opinions. On one hand, viewers enjoyed the drama and entertainment aspect of the show, some even going so far as applauding Sorokin for scamming the rich. On the other hand, viewers were angered at how Anna was portrayed as a victim on the show, when she was anything but innocent. Either way, Sorokin received more attention from the public than ever, both good and bad.

As all trends do, the public’s obsession over Anna Delvey died down — until September 4, 2024, when the American dance competition series Dancing with the Stars announced that Sorokin was joining the cast for the show’s 33rd season. The internet’s reaction? Enraged. People could not believe that a convicted felon was gaining more recognition than she ever deserved and strengthened her persona to celebrity status, especially since Dancing with the Stars labeled her as an “entrepreneur and fashionista.” Thousands of individuals took to the comments section to express their hatred, bringing up the issues of criminal glorification and questions regarding how she is even able to compete with an ankle monitor still on. Viewers even called out the show’s producers for rewarding a criminal in a political climate where a man with criminal prosecutions is currently running for president. Nevertheless, Dancing with the Stars was quite persistent in their efforts to turn the tide through attempts to rebrand her as a fashion icon and claims that Sorokin was actively trying to “reinvent” herself. Although the internet still had not forgotten her past (which is a little difficult to do when the ankle monitor is on full display), the show continued and premiered on Tuesday, September 17th. Sorokin, her partner Ezra, and her bedazzled ankle monitor danced the Cha Cha to Sabrina Carpenter’s song Espresso, and viewers were quick to point out her expressionless face throughout the dance and her indifferent attitude during the interviews. Her disappointing, boring performance served to bring forth another avalanche of hatred toward Sorokin, and in the following week’s episode, her fellow cast members were quick to address the hate and used different techniques to acquire sympathy from the audience (Lowe 2024).

And yet, despite various efforts to change the public’s perspective of Anna, a combination of the judges’ and viewers’ votes caused her to be eliminated in the first round. After hearing about her elimination, the only sorrow the internet felt was for Sorokin’s partner Ezra because this season was his first time as a pro dancer and people believed he deserved a much better experience as a rookie. Even though her elimination was expected by many, her response to being asked about what she learned from participating in the show was quite the opposite. “Nothing,” was Sorokin’s final statement on the show. Her terse, one-worded response shocked the audience at her audacity to be so dismissive of her experience, but looking back on it, I’d say it was quite in character for Anna Delvey. Hopefully, Dancing with the Stars will learn from this disastrous experience and prevent more convicted felons from taking part in the show in the future.