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Fake heiress Anna Sorokin says her around-the-clock home confinement and ban from social media are “more restrictive” than being behind bars, new court papers show.
Sorokin — who rose to infamy under the alter ego Anna Delvey — has been forced to stay in an apartment 24 hours a day for more than a year as she fights deportation and her 2019 conviction for scamming $200,000 from banks and businesses.
Now the fraudster is asking a Manhattan federal judge to step in and change the conditions of her house arrest — which ban her from leaving home for any reason except for medical emergencies or ICE and court appointments and keep her off all social media.
The rules “are exceedingly punitive and unreasonably infringe upon Ms. Sorokin’s freedom of speech,” and also infringe on her right to due process, according to a writ of habeas corpus filed Friday morning.
These conditions “have unnecessarily caused severe emotional distress and stress to Ms. Sorokin,” the filing claims.
Sorokin, 33 — who was the subject of the Netflix show “Inventing Anna” — says she doesn’t pose a risk of flight or a danger to the community and she has dutifully followed the “draconian” restrictions imposed on her for over a year.
“These restrictions serve absolutely no purpose in mitigating any flight risk or threat to the community that Ms. Sorokin may present and clearly violate her constitutional rights,” the court papers claim.
Immigration Judge Charles Conroy in an October 2022 decision made Sorokin post a $10,000 bond and required her to show up for weekly appointments with the Department of Justice Enforcement and Removal Operations — on top of home confinement, the social media band, and forcing her to wear a GPS ankle monitor.
Sorokin had been living in a Manhattan pad during the confinement until she moved to a “temporary residence in upstate New York” on Nov. 1 after her lease was up, the court papers specify in a footnote.
The judge also ordered that she would be subject to random visits by the bureau to check her electronic devices to ensure she is keeping off social media platforms.
Conroy later clarified that Sorokin cannot even leave her home to buy groceries, exercise, look for a job or attend medical, legal or business appointments — barring a medical emergency.
The situation “effectively impedes Ms. Sorokin’s ability to provide for her basic needs and pursue legitimate employment,” the filing claims.
But the court papers argue that the immigration proceeding is a civil one, rather than criminal, and she therefore shouldn’t face “punitive conditions” under her Fifth Amendment rights — which “guarantees Ms. Sorokin’s freedom from indefinite, unreasonably prolonged, or arbitrary civil immigration detention,” the suit claims.
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Her appeal of Conroy’s decision has been pending ever since and she is also appealing her criminal conviction.
“In many ways, Ms. Sorokin faces more restrictive conditions than she would in an immigration detention facility,” the filing claims. “Though Ms. Sorokin may not be physically ‘behind bars,’ her continued detention constitutes a serious deprivation of liberty and privacy, necessitating a periodic review hearing.”
This is the fourth lawsuit that Sorokin has had to file since she has been fighting being deported to Russia and she claims that Conroy “harbors a bias against” her and is seeking for him to be removed from the case.
Sorokin is asking for a judge to change her conditions so she can leave her apartment “with electronic monitoring” for “reasonable furloughs” to get groceries, go to the doctor, meet with her lawyer, exercise and to be able to use social media again.
Sorokin already served roughly three years in prison for her April 25, 2019, grand larceny conviction and was released on Feb. 11, 2021.
But the next month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put Sorokin back behind bars for another 18 months as part of her immigration case. She lost her bid for asylum and was ordered to be deported — which she is appealing.
A spokesperson with Homeland Security Investigations New York and a rep with ICE both declined to comment Friday.
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