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The day Netflix paid thousands of dollars to a professional scammer for a series
Genius producer Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) tackled yet another thrilling topic with the serie Inventing Anna (2022). The Netflix show follows Anna Delvey, a fake heiress who swindled New York high society from 2015 to 2019. The streaming platform apparently paid the scammer to create the series…
Published on 27 October 2021. Updated on 18 June 2026.
In the 2010s, Anna Delvey, a young Russian woman whose real name was Anna Sorokin, posed as a wealthy German heiress and swindled thousands of dollars from the New York elite. By pretending to own a huge fortune, the young woman managed to get tens of thousands of dollars in loans from several banks. With that money, she lived a luxurious life, without ever paying any bills. This impressive stroke of genius eventually led her to serve a four-year prison sentence in 2019 for aggravated theft. Anna Delvey was then released from prison in February 2021, after serving a 22-month sentence, thanks in part to Netflix, which paid her over $320,000 to adapt her story into a series.
Entitled Inventing Anna, the show was produced by the brilliant Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal). The storyline focuses on the case from the point of view of Vivian, a journalist working on the Anna Delvey case. She will try to portray this complex character with accuracy. The two women will forge a love-hate relationship over the course of the series’ ten episodes, as each faces a defining moment in their life. The plot is reminiscent of Diversion (2015), which featured a pair of savvy hustlers, played by Will Smith and Margot Robbie. As for the cast, Julia Garner (Ozark, The Americans) embodies Anna Delvey, while Anna Chlumsky portrays Vivian. Actors Arian Moayed, Alexis Floyd and Laverne Cox round up the cast in supporting roles.
Inventing Anna (2022), produced by Shonda Rhimes, available on Netflix.
