Inventing Anna: Did Fyre Fest’s Billy McFarland and Anna Sorokin Really Cross Paths?

If you’ve seen Netflix’s new based-on-real-life drama series Inventing Anna, you may be wondering — did Anna Sorokin, formerly known as Anna Delvey, really cross paths with Billy McFarland from Fyre Fest?

According to a July 2018 report from Page Six, Sorokin spent a whopping four months staying at a loft in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood where McFarland’s now-defunct credit card company, Magnises, was headquartered in 2013.

Fyre Fest — the failed music festival that McFarland put on in 2017 — was only a twinkle in his eye at the time.

“Anna knew people on Billy’s team,” said a person that Page Six refers to as an “insider.” “She just asked to stay for a few days … then she wouldn’t leave.”

“She hung out and went to the parties,” the person added. “She was there, just sitting there — all the time.”

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Another of Page Six‘s sources says that McFarland wanted Sorokin to leave, but was too shy to come out and say it, adding that he’s actually a “polite and nonconfrontational person.”

“He hinted, the staff hinted,” the source said. “She had Balenciaga bags and clothes everywhere. The company wound up moving into a townhouse. That’s the only way they got her out! She had been there for four months!”

McFarland is played in Inventing Anna by Ben Rappaport (Mr. Robot), while Julia Garner plays Anna Delvey. The series is adapted from Jessica Pressler’s viral 2018 story in New York Magazine, called Manhattan Magazine in the Netflix series.

Today, both Sorokin and McFarland are in custody. The Russian-born Sorokin was convicted in May 2019 on one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft services. She was released on parole in February 2021, then taken into in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accused of overstaying her visa.

She wrote in a first-person piece for The Insider last week: “I am here because Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided that my early merit release from prison means nothing to them and, despite being perfectly self-sufficient when left to my own (legal) devices, I, in fact, present ‘a continuous danger to the community.'”

She added: “Did I mention I’m the only woman in ICE custody in this whole jail? Tell me I’m special without telling me I’m special.”

McFarland is currently in a federal prison in Lisbon, Ohio, where he is serving a six-year fraud sentence, according to the New York Times. He initially pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud after investigators accused him of defrauding investors in his company, Fyre Media, and a subsidiary that promoted the festival. While on bail, he was charged with two more fraud counts related to a new company that prosecutors said sold fake tickets to events, costing victims at least $150,000.

Main Image: Ben Rappaport as Fyre Fest founder Billy Mcfarland and Julia Garner as Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna courtesy of Netflix