Nicole Briese is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously appeared in Us Weekly, Brides and MTV News.
Anna Delvey's parents have lived a far more modest life than the one their daughter became infamous for.
Their child, née Anna Sorokin, was convicted of eight counts of grand larceny and theft in 2019 and served as the basis for the hit Netflix show Inventing Anna. She has continued to live in the public eye since being released from prison in February 2021, launching her own podcast, The Anna Delvey Show, making the reality show Delvey's Dinner Club and starring on Dancing with the Stars.
Anna opened up about her mother, whose name has not been made public, and father, Vadim Sorokin, in an interview with The Cut following her 2017 arrest. "My parents had high expectations," she said at the time. "They always trusted me with my decision-making. I guess they regret it now."
In a rare interview, Vadim told the Daily Mail in 2022 that while he didn't understand what motivated Anna, he would support her if she was deported from America for overstaying her Visa. Anna was taken into custody by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shortly after her release from prison and is currently on house arrest.
"We have room for her here in the family home and while we'll support her, we won't enable her to repeat her previous mistakes," he said. "She needs, for the first time, to figure out what she's going to do with her life."
Vadim added, "All I want is for her to finally find a place for herself in this world."
Here is everything to know about Anna Delvey's parents.
Born in Domodedovo, Russia, in January 1991, Anna rose to fame in 2018 after an exposé was published in The Cut detailing a string of financial crimes she had committed in New York City.
Anna, who had been posing as a German heiress, was arrested in October 2017 after stealing upwards of $200,000 from her friends and banks in order to pay for her extravagant hotel stays and lifestyle.
In April 2019, she was found guilty on eight different charges, including one for attempted grand larceny in three degrees and theft of services.
Anna's story was the basis for her former friend Rachel Williams' 2019 book My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress and she was the real-life muse for the lead character in the 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna.
Anna's father is Vadim Sorokin and her mother's name has not been publicly released.
According to The Cut, Vadim, once rumored to be a Russian diplomat or an oil titan, worked as a truck driver in Anna's youth before becoming an executive at a transport company. The publication reported that Vadim opened a heating and cooling business that specialized in energy-efficient devices in 2013.
In addition to Anna, the couple have a son, per The Cut.
According to Anna, she is not close with her parents, whom she described as "conservative" to The New York Times.
Vadim told the Daily Mail that he has fond memories of his daughter from her childhood, however. "We had a lot of fun when she was little," he said, adding, "I would play with her a lot."
As she grew older, Anna's taste for luxury drove a wedge between them. Vadim told The Cut that he and Anna's mother financially supported their daughter, even after she graduated from high school in 2011. According to the business owner, it wasn't enough. "She wanted to live like Paris Hilton but we weren't able to give that to her," he told the Daily Mail.
Anna opened up about her relationship with her parents to Business Insider in 2022. "Generally, I would definitely agree that my parents did not really know what to do with me," she said. "We just have different interests."
After leaving her family home in Russia for Paris at the age of 19, Anna's communication with her mother and father declined. "I don't feel like my parents were really involved in, like, day-to-day life," she told Business Insider. "Sometimes, they would not even know what country I'd be in. There would definitely be a time they didn't know if I was like in Paris, Germany, or the states."
Anna added, "I just never really needed the approval [of] my parents."
Anna's parents have not been charged with any crime in connection to their daughter's thefts.
Vadim did not divulge the family's finances to The Cut but said that he and Anna's mother had helped fund their daughter's life beyond her housing. "We always paid for her accommodations, her rent and other matters," he told the outlet. "She assured us these costs were the best investment. If ever she needed something more at one point or another, it didn't matter. The future was always bright."
He later told the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that he was unaware of Anna's wrongdoings. "Before her detention, we knew nothing about her life in the US," he said, per the Daily Mail.
According to Vadim, Anna also never sent the family any of the roughly $275,000 she was convicted of stealing. "Our daughter has never sent us any money. On the contrary, she was borrowing," he said.
Vadim stated that he had no part in her illegal activities, saying, "I do not have any influence on her life and what she does. It is down to her what she has done."
Vadim told the Daily Mail that he found out about his daughter's arrest on the internet.
While Anna's mother and father did not attend her criminal trial due to what Vadim said were work obligations, they did voice their support for their daughter in a joint letter to New York State Supreme Court Judge Diane Kiesel, who oversaw Anna's criminal trial, according to Business Insider.
"Our daughter is young; she took a series of incorrect decisions to accomplish her goals, but Anna is not a person who should be behind bars," they wrote.
The outlet reported that Anna's mother and father, who claimed to have been in contact with her in the months leading up to her trial, believed that their daughter had learned her lesson and was on a better path. "We believe that our daughter will not make such mistakes again," they wrote.
Vadim also spoke out ahead of Anna's sentencing in May 2019, telling Komsomolskaya Pravda, "Naturally, she is guilty to [a] certain extent. We are aware of the situation but it is too early to talk about anything."
Anna's father did not believe she was the only party to blame, telling the Russian paper that her acquaintances were also "guilty." "They wanted to use everything for their benefit," he said. "They were taking in money, they were simply flying with her -- [they] went somewhere with her, got many things for free. And now they are trying to portray themselves as all white and fluffy."
Business Insider reported that Vadim wrote a second letter of support for his daughter ahead of her immigration court hearing stating that the family would take her in and she could work at the family business. He also expressed a desire for Anna to spend time with her elderly grandmother. "Anna will have every chance to integrate herself back into normal life," Vadim wrote.
Anna reportedly opposed the plan, telling the Daily Mail in 2022, "I'd rather be in jail than live with my parents." As of 2022, she lives in N.Y.C's East Village.
The Cut reported that Anna's mother, father and brother moved to Germany in 2007.
As of 2019, the Daily Mail reported that the family was renting a home near a series of multi-unit properties in the town of Duren.
Following her sentencing, both Anna and Vadim have said that they have been in contact. In 2019, Anna told the Daily Mail that she conversed with her parents "every other day."
Vadim confirmed her statement, telling the publication that he spoke to his older child "three or four times a week" while she was being held at the immigration detention center in New York for overstaying her visa.
According to the businessman, their talks mostly revolved around money. "The conversation is always the same -- she needs money," he said. "I don't think she has ever once said that she loves me but would tell me instead: 'I'm your only daughter and you have to help me and give me money. I've no way of doing it myself.' "
Anna gave an update on her contact with her parents in 2022, telling Business Insider, "I talk to my parents a couple of times a week, and I guess they are learning to deal with the whole situation."