Anna Delvey (a.k.a. Anna Sorokin) wants to re-invent herself.
ICYMI, the fake German heiress—who served as the inspiration for Netflix's Inventing Anna—was recently released after spending more than a year in immigration custody in New York for overstaying her visa. Now, the 31-year-old is sharing her belief that she deserves a fresh slate moving forward.
"I feel like a deserve a second chance, it was my mistake that I made," she said in an Oct. 12 interview with CNN. "I served my time and I feel like I should deserve a second opportunity."
As for why she served time? In 2017, Sorokin was arrested and charged with defrauding or intentionally deceiving major financial institutions, banks, hotels, and acquaintances for a total amount upwards of $275,000. Two years later, she was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after being convicted of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree and theft of services, but was acquitted of two additional charges.
If you're wondering why she overstayed her visa in the U.S., Anna noted that she was "trying to fix some mistakes I've done in the past."
"And I feel like it I were to leave and say, ‘Oh whatever'…I'm just gonna move on and move to Europe," she continued. "I would be accepting the labels they're trying to slap on me."
And although she noted that she was "so sorry for a lot of the choices," she made, she has not reached out to apologize to anyone specifically and denies there was any wrongdoing when it came to her friends. (Between the two charges Anna was acquitted of, one included larceny in the second degree, relating to a $62,000 bill allegedly covered by a friend).
"Well, I didn't steal any money from friends," she said. "And everybody else is a financial institution." But does she think she took advantage of people? "I definitely did," she noted. "And I was younger, and I've learned from my mistakes."
With all the notoriety surrounding her, Anna thinks if it weren't the public fascination, then she may have been looking at a different outcome.
"If I were to be prosecuted for similar crimes in Germany, I don't think people would really care," she noted. "I never really wanted to be famous…I just wanted to work on my business."