Skip to main contentSkip to footer
Anna Delvey poses before a Digital Features: Tackling Issues Of Free Speech And Censorship panel discussion at NeueHouse Madison Square on September 12, 2024 in New York City© Getty

The scandalous reason Anna Delvey wears an ankle monitor on DWTS — her criminal history revisited

The Russian-born con artist scammed the New York City elite and other wannabe socialites into funding her lifestyle by posing as a wealthy foreign heiress

Beatriz Colon
Beatriz Colon - New York
New York WriterNew York
September 17, 2024
Share this:

Anna Delvey is going from prison to the dance floor.

The con artist is part of the star-studded cast hitting the dance floor as part of the 33rd season of Dancing with the Stars, which airs Tuesday, September 17 on ABC.

The Russia native is paired up with Ezra Sosa, and will be competing against fellow stars such as Olympians Stephen Nedoroscik and Ilona Maher, Bachelor Nation alums Joey Graziadei and Jenn Tran, Julia Roberts' brother Eric Roberts, Danny Amendola, Brooks Nader and Tori Spelling, among others.

Dancing With the Stars season 33 cast on GMA

Her made up life of luxury, a scam she ran from around 2013 to 2017, infamously unraveled after the NYPD arrested her with the help of her former friend Rachel DeLoache Williams, who in 2018 wrote a lengthy, viral article for Vanity Fair titled She Paid for Everything: How a Fake Heiress Made My $62,000 Disappear, and she later gained more notoriety after the Jessica Pressler The Cut article How an Aspiring 'It' Girl Tricked New York's Party People — and Its Banks, the foundation for the 2022 Netflix miniseries Inventing Anna, was published the same year.

Ahead of the DWTS premiere, revisit Anna's scandalous story.

Anna Delvey Sorokin is seen at DWTS rehearsal on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California© Getty
Anna heading into DWTS practice

Early life

Anna, 33, was born in Moscow during the last year of the Soviet Union, in the working class town of Domodedovo.

MORE: Dancing with the Stars host Alfonso Ribeiro's sweet love story with wife Angela Unkrich

When she was 16, her family moved to Germany, and she later moved to London to attend the famed Central Saint Martin art school, however she soon after dropped out and returned to Germany.

Anna Delvey poses at home on July 13, 2023 in New York City. Delvey was released from prison on good behavior in February of 2021 after serving nearly four years© Getty
She posed as a wealthy German heiress

Scamming New York City elites

After a brief time living in Paris, Anna, who around this time started using the last name Delvey instead of her given name Sorokin, moved to New York City in 2013, and quickly began establishing the story that she was a wealthy foreign heiress.

She began expanding her network of what would ultimately be the people she conned into supporting her lifestyle by sneaking into society parties, failing to pay people back for luxuries such as trips abroad and expensive meals, and eventually she created fake bank statements and other financial documents that implied she had around $60 million in Swiss bank accounts, however she claimed they were tied up to a trust and she couldn't access the move from the U.S.

With attorney Todd Spodek (L) and Judge Diane Kiesel (R) in the background, fake German heiress Anna Sorokin is led away after being sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court May 9, 2019 following her conviction last month on multiple counts of grand larceny and theft of services© Getty
In court after her sentencing on May 9, 2019

MORE: DWTS' pro Artem Chigvintsev's wife Nikki Garcia files for divorce after domestic violence arrest

Similar schemes went on for years, among the last of them conning her way into staying at the 11 Howard hotel without a credit card on file for months, racking up a $30,000 bill, which she ultimately "paid" by depositing $160,000 worth of fraudulent checks into a Citibank account and withdrawing money from it.

Anna Delvey on the fire escape of her East Village apartment, while on house arrest on November 7, 2022 in New York City© Getty
Anna in her NYC apartment, with her ankle monitor

Arrest and life after conviction

Even after the 11 Howard incident, Anna still managed to fraud several more hotels into free stays, and even chartered a business jet via Blade to travel to Omaha, Nebraska with the intention of meeting Warren Buffet at an annual Berkshire Hathaway, and cornered her friend Rachel into paying $62,000 for a trip to Marrakech.

MORE: Artem Chigvintsev's future on DWTS revealed after domestic violence arrest

On October 3, 2017, she was finally arrested during a sting operation planned by the NYPD with the help of the Manhattan District Attorney's office and Rachel herself. 

Ezra Sosa and Anna Delvey© Andrew Eccles

She was ultimately found guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny and theft of services, and sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison; she was released on good behavior on February 11, 2021 after nearly four years, however six weeks later, in March, she was taken back into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa, and was in their custody in upstate New York for a year.

Today, she is technically still under house arrest, hence her use of an ankle monitor on DWTS, and has been able to support herself — and pay back countless fees — thanks to society's ongoing fascination with her, which she has also used to her advantage to host fashion events at her East Village apartment, sell art, and of course, star on Dancing with the Stars.

Sign up to Off Camera for all the gossip and goings-on from the wonderful world of TV and film

By entering your details, you are agreeing to HELLO! Magazine User Data Protection Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please click here.

More Celebrity News

See more