ABC's Whoopi Goldberg calls out her own network for putting con artist on 'Dancing With The Stars'
"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg unleashed on her own network, ABC, for putting convicted felon and con artist Anna "Delvey" Sorokin on "Dancing With The Stars," who will be performing this season in an ankle bracelet.
"I think back to the families who have had family members arrested by ICE who have gone to the courts to get their dad or their brother or their mother back, and this woman, they gave her permission to go do this. Now, should I think there’s a reason? Is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?" Goldberg said.
Sorokin was released from federal custody in October 2022 after spending 17 months in prison and has been on house arrest ever since. The story of Sorokin, who infamously pretended to have a 60-million euro fortune while living a lavish New York lifestyle, inspired the hit Netflix series "Inventing Anna."
"I don't understand why she gets to stay," Goldberg said, after co-host Joy Behar said it was because Sorokin was "pretty." "I'm listening to people b---- about what's going on at the border, and I'm listening to people b---- about all these people who shouldn't be here, well what the hell, man? How does this work?"
Born in the former Soviet Union, Sorokin swindled a network of financial institutions and New York's elite into believing she had a fortune overseas. She was convicted of four counts of theft of services, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny in 2019.
"We've got to support the network, I get all of that," Goldberg said of ABC, before gesturing her hand to her chin, and suggesting it was a big slap "in the face of a lot of people who've been trying to make their way back to this country."
Fox News Digital reached out to ABC News for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
The other co-hosts also weren't enthusiastic about Sorokin competing on the show.
"When you think about it, she defrauded so many people and then spent two years in prison, and then had to spend another 18 months in prison for overstaying her welcome and overstaying her visa so she committed another crime and what is the, I don’t know, consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor, a federal bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show," co-host Sunny Hostin said earlier in the discussion.
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Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin told the other contestants to be wary of Sorokin.
"She still owes people money and con artists tend to remain con artists," Griffin said.
"The View" co-hosts took aim at the Netflix series "Inventing Anna" during an episode of their show in 2023, as Goldberg and Hostin criticized Sorokin's release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
"I mean, she’s a young, blonde woman of a certain complexion, and that’s probably part of it it … Part is that I find fascinating is she got paid $300,000 from Netflix for that series," Hostin said, referring to the Netflix show at the time.