Netflix’s Inventing Anna: The jaw-dropping true story of the fake heiress conwoman that inspired show

THEY say the truth can be stranger than fiction and that is certainly the case with Anna Sorokin.

The Russian-born 31-year-old is the focus of new Netflix drama Inventing Anna, and follows how she was able to pretend to be a wealthy German heiress going by the name of Anna Delvey.

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Anna was able to defraud banks, hotels and wealthy acquaintances between 2013 and 2017.

Actress Julia Garner will play Anna, while the cast also includes My Girl's Anna Chlumsky, Orange is the New Black's Laverne Cox, and Billions star Terry Kinney.

Anna was born in Russia in 1991 to her truck driver dad and housewife mother before the family moved to Germany in 2007 when Anna was 16.

She struggled to make friends but things changed when she moved to Paris for an internship at Purple - a fashion magazine - and changed her surname from Sorokin to Delvey.

After attending New York Fashion Week in the summer of 2013, Anna decided to stay in the Big Apple as she found it easier to make friends.

She soon came up with the idea for the Anna Delvey Foundation - a private members club and art foundation - and set about trying to raise the money for it via the wealthy contacts she had made.

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But as she struggled to land investors, she decided to raise the money by other means and started submitting fake bank statements claiming to have access to 60 million Euros in Swiss bank accounts in a bid to secure mammoth loans from US banks.

While many of her applications were rejected as the banks were suspicious of her documentation, Anna still managed to glean thousands of dollars via an overdraft application.

She then used the money to pay one of her many tabs at swanky hotels around the Big Apple where she was living the high life, despite not leaving a credit card with the reception staff and trying to keep them off her back with handsome tips and gifts.

Anna was finally arrested in October 2017 after law enforcement officers had built up a case against her.

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Her trial began in March 2019 and a month later she was found guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services.

She was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison, fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000.

However, she was released from prison in February 2021, but was taken back into custody a month later for overstaying her visa and is awaiting deportation to Germany.

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Inventing Anna premieres on Netflix on Friday, February 11.