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Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP
The fraudster Anna Sorokin is suing the US immigration authorities from prison after suffering from corona disease, reports the US news channel NBC.
She says she contracted Covid because officials refused her requests for a booster shot.
The Russian Sorokin is in US custody for cheating friends and business partners out of hundreds of thousands.
She had posed as a wealthy heiress, infiltrated New York's high society, and stole a luxurious lifestyle at the expense of others.
Sorokin filed a class action lawsuit with three other plaintiffs.
According to the complaint, she had tested positive in January and had developed symptoms of illness.
The lawsuit alleges that Sorokin had "a fever, persistent cough, nausea, migraines, and body aches."
Sorokin's lawyers say she's feeling lingering effects from her infection beyond the quarantine, including fatigue, lightheadedness, shortness of breath and coughing.
Due to chronic kidney disease, she is considered a risk patient, and she also suffers from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The class action lawsuit accuses the agency of not having passed adequate guidelines on booster vaccinations for prison inmates.
Sorokin was sentenced to four to twelve years in prison in 2019 - but was released on probation in February 2021 because she was able to count her almost two-year pre-trial detention.
A few weeks later, immigration officials arrested her for forfeiting her residency in New York but not leaving the United States.
Instead of being deported, she went back to prison and applied for asylum.
The decision is still pending.
Sorokin is the daughter of a Russian truck driver.
When she was 16, the family moved to Germany.
In 2016, Sorokin came to the United States.
Between November 2016 and August 2017, through clever lying and self-confidence, she managed to get tens of thousands of dollars in loans from various banks, travel for free on private planes, and live in luxury hotels in Manhattan for months without paying the bills.
She also attempted to start a hybrid nightclub/art gallery by borrowing $22 million using forged documents.
Netflix wants to film the story.
The streaming service presented Sorokin with a contract while in detention and bought the impostor story for $320,000.
In an interview with the New York Times, Sorokin said the money had already been spent.
She is also working on a book and a podcast.
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