The Luxury in Netflix’s Inventing Anna Is Ill-Gotten, But Still Delicious

Inventing Anna, the much-anticipated Netflix show about the Manhattan-based socialite grifter named Anna Delvey (aka Sorokin, aka Sorokina), is a feast for the eyes—and the credit card.

Delvey, as you will recall, was a woman of opaque European descent who swindled financiers, art patrons, Fifth Avenue grand dames, and hangers-on out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. She pulled the con by posing as a high-class “it” girl building an art foundation and social club, among other endeavors. In May 2019 she was convicted of eight white-collar felonies, including grand larceny and theft of services. She earned her release last February, having served nearly four years behind bars, first at New York City’s Rikers Island and then at Albion Correctional Facility in upstate New York.