Anna Sorokin’s former friend is suing Netflix for defamation, saying it let ‘Inventing Anna’ portray her as ‘greedy’ and ‘snobbish’

A composite image of Anna Sorokin and Rachel DeLoache Williams. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images; Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Anna Sorokin’s former friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, sued Netflix for defamation on Monday.

  Williams said she was falsely depicted in the Netflix series “Inventing Anna,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the depiction subjected her to a “torrent of online abuse. ” A former friend of Anna Sorokin — AKA Anna Delvey — sued Netflix for defamation, saying it allowed the Emmy-nominated series “Inventing Anna” to portray her as “greedy” and “snobbish.

“Rachel DeLoache Williams, who is portrayed by Katie Lowes in the series, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court of Delaware on Monday. The 58-page lawsuit claimed Netflix “made a deliberate decision for dramatic purposes to show Williams doing or saying things in the Series which portray her as a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative and opportunistic person. “”As a result of Netflix’s false portrayal of her as a vile and contemptible person, Williams was subjected to a torrent of online abuse, negative in-person interactions, and pejorative characterizations in podcasts,” the suit added.

Netflix and Williams’ attorney, Alexander Rufus-Isaac, did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. Sorokin was convicted in 2019 for a scam in which she pretended to be a European heiress with a $60 million fortune. Her story became the subject of the Netflix limited series, which was adapted from a New York Magazine article.

Netflix acquired the rights of the article and signed on to be a producer of the show in 2018, Deadline reported. Williams is a former Vanity Fair photo editor who befriended Sorokin in New York in 2016, when she was scamming her way through expensive trips, hotels, and restaurants around the world. She eventually became the victim of one of Sorokin’s scams when the fake heiress conned her into incurring around $62,000 of debt on her corporate credit card during a trip to Morocco.

After many failed attempts to get repaid, Williams went to the police and assisted with a sting operation that led to Sorokin’s arrest in Los Angeles in 2017. Williams later wrote a Vanity Fair article and a book about the experience. Williams’ lawsuit said she was falsely depicted in the series, citing several aspects of how she was portrayed in the Netflix series, including freeloading off Sorokin, abandoning Sorokin in Morocco, and dropping the fake heiress as a friend when she could no longer pay for things.

 “Netflix gave fictional names to many of the real-life protagonists in the Sorokin saga who appear in the Series, but it did not afford Williams the same protection,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, it used her real name and personal details in the Series and cast an actress who resembled her in many ways. “Sorokin was charged in a pair of indictments in 2017 and 2018.

She was released in February after four years in prison, but was re-arrested for overstaying her visa, and is currently being held in a New Jersey county jail by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, awaiting deportation to Germany. Sorokin told The Daily Beast in response to Williams’ lawsuit: “Truth hurts. ” Read the original article on Insider.