Officials reported that a convicted con artist featured in the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler has been arrested in Georgia at the request of Interpol. On Sunday, Shimon Yehuda Hayut (Simon Leviev) was detained when he landed at Batumi international airport in the south-west of the country.
In 2017-2019, 34-year-old Hayut allegedly scammed women out of an estimated £7.4m by using the dating app Tinder to impersonate the son of the billionaire diamond mogul Lev Leviev.
A Netflix documentary, which was released in 2022, has alleged that he had formed a fake online identity to seduce victims into emotional and financial problems. It was alleged that he tried to outdo women on Tinder and then take them out on a fancy first date, where he spent a lot of money and quite a few costly and lavish props, such as bodyguards and luxury jets.
According to the documentary, he once won the trust of the women, and later on, he would send them a text stating that his credit card was not functioning and request them to open a new credit card in their name so he could use it.
Therefore, Hayut rejected all the charges leveled against him. He has claimed that he was neither a fraud nor a fake but a “legitimate businessman” who became wealthy with the help of bitcoin.
In 2019, he was arrested and extradited to Israel on four charges of fraud, forgery, and theft. He was convicted of 15 months of prison time, half of which he served, five months on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hayut also received an order to pay compensation to the victims of the offence, which includes £35,000, and also pay a fine of approximately £4,600 because of possession of a false passport.
On Sunday, without providing any additional information, the Interior Ministry Spokesperson, Tato Kuchava, stated that Hayut was arrested under a red notice issued by Interpol. He informed the AFP that Hayut was “arrested at Batumi’s airport at Interpol’s request.”
The lawyer of Hayut informed Israeli media that he did not know the reasons why he was under arrest. His lawyer said, “I spoke with him this morning after he was detained, but we don’t yet understand the reason. He has been travelling freely around the world.”
A 29-year-old Norwegian graduate student who was featured on the Netflix documentary claimed she spent over $270,000 during their relationship. Cecilie Fjellhøy states that Norwegian was courted by Hayut when they went out on their first date in London, and he flew them to Bulgaria using a personal plane.
In November 2011, another victim, Iren Tranov, sued Hayut in Israel for 414,000 shekels (£91,000), accusing him of not paying her over 144,000 shekels (£31,000), which she had loaned him over the years.
