Convicted con artist Anna Sorokin, perhaps better known by the pseudonym Anna Delvey, released a country song Friday while under house arrest when she posed as a fake German heiress.
The song, «What the Hell,» is a collaboration between Sorokin, TikTok composer Brooke Butler, and the band Audio Chauteu.
Representatives for Sorokin did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Jared Gutstadt, the CEO of AudioUP who co-wrote the song with Butler and country songwriter Scarlett Burke, said Sorokin was essentially «the curator» of the single.
Gutstadt said that, similar to how he worked with other artists such as DJ Khaled, he sent out demos for Sorokin to listen to and ended up with a song for which he became «the trademark». His voice is heard at the top of the song, where he says «My name is Anna Delvey».
«Songs are songs, I’ve written a lot of them,» Gustadt said. «But without some kind of brand that people can hold on to, you’re competing with hundreds of millions of new songs coming out every year on Spotify.»
Gustadt said that the new song will be broadcast on the radio, largely due to Sorokin’s fame or infamy. «Usually you have to work very, very hard in radio to get there… I think his name captures some people’s imagination and attention.»
The song will essentially serve as the theme song for her podcast, «The Anna Delvey Show,» which launched in June. It is spearheaded by producer Sean Glass and distributed on AudioUp.
«This is the first time people have heard from her directly, which allows her to have a voice,» Glass said.
Sorokin’s story was dramatized in the Netflix limited series «Inventing Anna,» which details her plan to pretend to be a wealthy heiress and work her way into elite New York circles.
He spent more than three years in prison for defrauding and attempting to defraud banks and hotels of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sorokin was released in October after posting bond and is currently under house arrest in New York City while facing removal proceedings.
Whether a convicted fraudster like Sorokin could launch a podcast to share her narrative raises tricky ethical questions, said Adam Golub, a professor at California State University, Fullerton, whose research includes the connection between true crime and popular culture.
«This is a part of this larger multimedia environment that we live in, which gives criminals the opportunity to potentially (operate) their own PR campaign and get their story out there in ways we’ve never seen before,» Golub said.
“This was impossible years ago,” Golub said. “We have to ask ourselves, what are the ethics involved when (we allow) criminals to have a voice outside of the criminal justice system? We have to ask ourselves, what do we want to hear? Why are we interested in the first place?