It's safe to say we have all been enthralled by Inventing Anna, the Shonda Rhimes series which chronicles the rise and fall of convicted scam artist/'fake German heiress' Anna Delvey who lied her way through the wealthy upper echelons of New York society. It's so popular that even though it dropped on Netflix back on February 11, it's still the most watched show in the UK on the streaming service.
And it might surprise some, because even though Anna was charged with fraud, she was actually paid for the Netflix show. Reportedly, it was a lot of money, too. According toInsider, Netflix paid Anna '$320,000 for the rights to adapt her life story into a TV series'.
But apparently, Anna hasn't kept most of the cash - as $199,000 was reportedly paid in restitution to banks and another $24,000 was used to settle state fines she had (after this, she was left with little money). In New York, under the Son of Sam law, Americans are prevented from profiting off their crimes due to publicity, but this was waived so Anna could pay her victims.
Anna herself told The New York Times: 'I paid $198,000-something for restitution, which I have paid off in its entirety and right away, and the rest of it to my legal fees… To reference that BBC interview where I was asked "Does crime pay?", I could not honestly say "no" in my situation, because I did get paid.'
The scammer was released from prison in February 2021 - but six weeks later, Anna was placed in ICE detention, after overstaying her visa. The 31-year-old is facing being deported to Germany, but she has applied for asylum. Anna is currently behind bars in New York, but she's still creating headlines, speaking in interviews and posting to her Instagram account. (Yesterday, she hit out at former friend and journalist, who was featured in the series, Rachel Deloache Williams.) Anna is also apparently working on something with woman of the momentJulia Fox.
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