Convicted thief Anna Sorokin, whose life and crimes are the subject of the new Netflix drama "Inventing Anna," claims she caught COVID-19 after being refused a booster shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Now the 31-year-old, who is fighting deportation to Germany, along with three other ICE detainees, is suing federal immigration authorities, according to the New York Post. The plaintiffs claim their constitutional rights as medically vulnerable people were violated when ICE ignored their booster requests.
Sorokin has been in custody at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York, since last year for allegedly overstaying her visa, the Post noted. Several weeks ago she submitted a written request for a second vaccine dose but it went unanswered, the complaint filed in Washington, D.C., federal court claims.
On Jan. 19 she tested positive for COVID-19 and experienced a fever, persistent cough, nausea, migraines and body aches, according to the filing, which notes that the side effects continued even after Sorokin left quarantine on Jan. 29.
According to the suit, the infamous fraudster suffers from "several medical conditions" including chronic kidney infection, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder— all conditions that make her vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19.
A year ago Sorokin was released from the Albion Correctional Facility in Albion, New York, for good behavior and taken into ICE custody on March 25. She was transferred to Goshen, where she got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April 2021, from the Bergen County Correctional Facility in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Since June 7, Sorokin has been held at the Orange County Correctional Facility, where she "has not heard of any other detained people" getting boosters, according to the Post.
Sorokin was sentenced to four- to-12 years in prison in 2019 on convictions of grand larceny and theft of services. She scammed about $200,000 from banks and businesses by posing as a wealthy German heiress going by the name of Anna Delvey.
Netflix paid her about $320,000 for the rights to her life story and for consulting work for "Inventing Anna," which is produced by Shonda Rhimes and stars actress Julia Garner in the title role. Of that amount, $198,000 was paid in restitution and the rest reportedly went to Sorokin's legal fees.
"I never asked for Netflix to buy my story; it just happened," Sorokin told the BBC at the time. "And everything else, it just spun out of my control. It’s not like I orchestrated anything."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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