‘Fake heiress’ Anna Sorokin treated like a celebrity in prison after early release from 12 year term

The wannabe socialite claims she was treated like a star while locked up and since being freed she is being followed by a cameraman.

“Fake heiress” Anna Sorokin claims her prison guards treated her like a celebrity – and that she hustled the right correction officers to help her land a cushy gym job while behind bars, according to a new interview.

Sorokin, 29, was freed on Thursday from the Albion Correction Facility due to good behaviour after getting hit with a four to 12 year sentence in 2019 on grand larceny and theft of services convictions.

The wannabe socialite, who pretended to be the scion of a wealthy European family to scam banks, businesses and friends, had tried to score a $US22 million ($A28 million) bank loan to launch a Manhattan art club.

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Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin is led away in 2019 after being sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court following her conviction on multiple counts of grand larceny and theft of services. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

In her first published interview since being released from the upstate lockup, she told Insider that in prison the system wasn’t that different.

“It’s about who you know,” she said, wearing a $US720 ($A925) Balenciaga hoodie, during a Zoom interview from a hotel room, the site reported.

“It’s kind of like the scene in New York, but amplified. Because if you know the right officers, they’re going get you the right job. And so I had a job in a gym, because I just wanted to work out when no one else would go. And they give it to me.”

She called her gig a “fraud” that amounted to about 15 minutes of real work.

When asked if she had celebrity status in the slammer, she replied, “Absolutely.” She said she had become so famous that every single corrections officer knew who she was – and it wasn’t always to her benefit.

“Some of them, I guess, came from a place where they wanted to f**k with me,” she told Insider. “One of the sergeants, he was like, ‘Well, who would you think you are? I had Amy Fisher.’”

Sorokin laughed and said she wasn’t trying to compete with the ‘Long Island Lolita’, who served time at Albion after shooting and seriously wounding her lover’s wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco.

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Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, at court in 2019 during her trial at New York State Supreme Court. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

But, she added, most of the reactions from correction officers were positive.

“A lot of them were just very inappropriate, very unprofessional,” she told the outlet. “Like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love your story. I’m following you on Instagram.’”

A lot of misguided young women who arrived at Albion took a dark path, she said. “So many people, they come to prison and just start doing drugs,” Sorokin observed. “I never saw as many drugs in New York as I did in prison.”

Sorokin, who has reverted back to using her alias Anna Delvey, was famously unrepentant for her crimes, once telling a reporter after her conviction, “I’d be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything.”

But that changed in October when she stood before the parole board and apologised profusely.

“I just want to say that I’m really ashamed and I’m really sorry for what I did,” according to a transcript of the October 6 hearing.

Her contrition didn’t last. “I think regret is just a useless feeling,” she told Insider. “It would be a huge waste of my time.”

The fake heiress sold her story to Netflix for over $400,000. Picture: Instagram

On Sunday, Sorokin was spotted leaving the 5-star NoMad hotel, before heading to a Manhattan Sephora – all while trailed by a cameraman.

She was paid at least $US320,000 ($A411,000) from Netflix for the rights to her life story for a series produced by Shonda Rimes. She has paid back $US200,000 ($A257,000) in restitution and says she plans to write a book.

In a statement, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told the New York Post that Sorokin was treated like other inmates.

“All incarcerated individuals are treated the same regardless of sentence, with the program committee assigning appropriate programs or work assignments,” spokesperson Thomas Mailey said.

Her lawyer, Todd Spodek, declined to comment.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as ‘Fake heiress’ Anna Sorokin treated like a celebrity in prison after early release from 12 year term