The legal battles behind Anna Delvey’s Dancing With The Stars debut

Sorokin has employed plenty of lawyers in recent years. The funding is believed to have come from media deals and sales of her prison artwork.

Netflix controversially paid Sorokin $320,000 (£230,000) for her life story for its Inventing Anna series. After a state intervention, she was legally obliged to use some of that money to pay back the victims of her theft. But there was some money left over to pay for her lawyer in the original trial.

Netflix is facing a defamation trial, sparked by the series.

The case was brought by Sorokin’s one-time friend Rachel Williams, who was portrayed in the show.

Williams wrote a book My Friend Anna about their short-lived friendship and how it fell apart after she was left to foot a $62,000 bill at a luxury resort in Morocco.

The lawsuit argues that Netflix used her real name and biographical details in its Inventing Anna series, but she was unfairly depicted as a “vile and contemptible person”.

Netflix, in an attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, said their interpretation of Williams was open to “literary licence” and protected by the First Amendment, according to Variety magazine.

Sorokin is not involved in that case, although she has been subpoenaed as a witness for the trial.

Williams’ lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told the BBC that the case was expected to come to trial next year.

He said Sorokin’s employment on Dancing with the Stars was “glamourising and minimising the crimes she committed, and minimising the impact on the people she hurt”.

In court, Sorokin was found not guilty of the charge related to the Morocco trip. American Express eventually refunded Williams, but after she had suffered a long period of stress and anxiety, according to her book.

While some have viewed Sorokin as an anti-establishment hero for infiltrating and embarrassing wealthy institutions, Williams did not see it that way. She previously told the BBC: “The system that Anna was seeking to undermine… she wasn’t doing it out of some altruistic nobility, she wanted to be a part of them.”

In response to the recent backlash, Dancing with the Stars boss Conrad Green told Variety: “Yes, [Sorokin] had the issues she’s had, but we’ve had other people on the show who’ve had criminal issues in the past. She served her time. I think it’s perfectly valid for her to be on the show.”