“Simon Leviev,” the man who scammed multiple women. His victims include Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, and Ayleen Charlotte, 3 primaries that Netflix picked to share the stories. Simon Leviev posted himself as a son of Lev Leviev, the Russian-Israeli diamond oligarch, and used this plotline to take women on lavish dates and leave them in debt. Leviev’s real name is Shimon Hayut, and he has no relation to the diamond tycoon family. To the report, he began his romantic Ponzi scheme in Finland in 2011, served 2 years in Finnish prison for swindling 3 women, and was released in 2017 and returned to Israel. He escaped before the arrest and flew to Europe, the duration where “The Tinder Swindler” starts.
He would meet women on Tinder and make them believe he was a wealthy heir working in a dangerous diamond business and built long-distance relationships. After lavishly taking a woman out, he would leave the story as he regretted leaving it all behind because of the business trips. For a while of dating, he set up the dangerous outlines, sending the videos of his bodyguard bleeding and asking for his girlfriend’s credit card to spend so it isn’t traceable. This kind of dating happened loop by loop. Not many women know the wealth they witnessed had been paid by the woman who came before them. She is the one who is paying next.
Spoiler Alert:
The police finally caught Leviev by using a fake passport in Greece in 2019 and extradited him to Israel. He was convicted of theft, fraud, and forgery of the documents in Israel and sentenced to 15 months in prison. After that, he was released on good behavior and hasn’t been charged with any crime out of Israel, even though he went on scamming in Sweden, England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Yet, he denied every charge against him.
The Times of Israel shared that he may have swindled approximately 10 million dollars from the victims across the continent during 2017 – 2019. Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, and Ayleen Charlotte are still paying off the debts.
Reference
Lauren Kranc. “The Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev Pretended to Be the King of Diamonds.” Retrieved Mar 1, 2022 from the World Wide Web: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a38955743/tinder-swindler-simon-leviev-true-story-where-is-he-now/
