Fake heiress Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin unrecognisable in new photos

Fake heiress Anna Delvey has debuted a fresh look despite being under indefinite house arrest.

Fake heiress Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin has debuted a seemingly new look despite being under indefinite house arrest.

In promotional pictures for her upcoming podcast, The Anna Delvey Show, the German con artist sported blonde highlights, fuller lips and a dewy complexion (the decency of which she once attributed to her time behind bars, “just because you stay out of the sun and you don’t drink or smoke”).

Delvey, who was convicted of swindling $US200,000 ($299,253) from banks and businesses across New York by pretending to be a European heiress with a 60 million euro fortune, announced the weekly podcast series in May.

A promotional photo for Anna Delvey’s upcoming podcast, The Anna Delvey Show. Picture: Audio Up

Produced by Audio Up and recorded from her apartment in New York’s East Village, The Anna Delvey Show will feature guests like Julia Fox and Emily Ratajkowski, and discuss traditional concepts of right and wrong while “unpacking what it means to be a rule breaker in 2023”.

“This will be the first time I have my own platform to share my personal views on the public’s fascination with my life story while in conversation with guests across multiple industries including business, media, entertainment, art and more,” Delvey told Deadline in a statement last week.

“I’m interested in examining how rule breaking can build you up as well as tear you down while also creating a polarising reaction from the public.”

Audio Up chief creative officer, Jimmy Jellinek, described the podcast as “a truly visceral experience that taps into the public’s fierce fascination with Anna and her public image”.

“Right or wrong, many of us find ourselves rooting for Anna’s future and that’s what this show examines.”

The 32-year-old convicted scammer has debuted a new look in recent months. Picture: Splash News/Media Mode

‘I’m interested in examining how rule breaking can build you up as well as tear you down.’ Picture: Splash News/Media Mode

The 32-year-old is currently being sued by her former lawyer Audrey A Thomas over $US152,000 ($227,464) in unpaid fees.

Delvey hired Ms Thomas in 2020 to represent her in her immigration case and to appeal her fraud conviction. But the relationship soured last April, with the ‘Soho Grifter’ dropping her legal representative and accusing her for withholding records in her case.

In a Manhattan Supreme Court Filing, Ms Thomas has now accused Delvey of lying in an attempt to skip out on the “astronomical legal fees” she owes.

According to the filing, Delvey “was able to remain in the United States because while she was taken to the airport and literally sitting in the gate area with her belongings in garbage bags, [Thomas] filed a writ and secured a stay from deportation removal”.

Delvey is currently being sued by her former lawyer. Picture: Splash News/Media Mode

Delvey was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019. Picture: Timothy A Clary/AFP

The German native was ordered to pay back $US275,000 to hotels, restaurants, and a private-jet company. Picture: Instagram

Delvey, whose crimes were the inspiration behind Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix series Inventing Anna, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 after being found guilty of eight charges, including second-degree grand larceny, first-degree attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. She was also ordered to pay back $US275,000 ($411,642) to hotels, restaurants, and a private-jet company.

Having moved to New York in 2013 after stints in London and Paris, Delvey manoeuvred her way into the realm of the city’s trust-fund socialite set, largely because she was assumed to be one herself.

She maintained her lavish lifestyle – including residing in $400-per-night hotels – by convincing people with actual money to pay for it, and almost persuaded several banks to give her a $US25 million ($37.4 million) bank loan with falsified records in the hopes of opening the Anna Delvey Foundation, an exclusive club with a rotating art gallery and restaurant.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald last October, Delvey acknowledged she’d “made a series of unfortunate mistakes in my past”.

“But I’ve paid for them,” she insisted, “and hopefully, I will be given a chance to move on and prove that I’m not whatever they were saying I am.”

Originally published as Fake heiress Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin unrecognisable in new photos