Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev back living the high life since getting out of jail
After scamming women and businesses out of millions, Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev has been back flaunting his luxurious lifestyle online.
He is the Tinder Swindler, thought to have conned women and businesses around the world out of more than £7 million ($A13.3 million).
But fans of the Netflix documentary film may be shocked to discover that after just a brief stint in jail, bogus billionaire Simon Leviev is back living the high life and even runs seminars for wannabe entrepreneurs costing £250 ($A475) a head, The Sun reports.
Claiming to be the CEO of a diamond firm, the Israeli-born fraudster posed in private jets and supercars and showered online dates with lavish gifts before stinging them for cash — one UK-based victim, Cecilie Fjellhoy, shelled out £185,000 ($A351,680).
Leviev was jailed in 2019 after program makers helped police track him down, but he served just five months inside.
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When the Netflix show premiered last week, he hit back with claims that the women were all colluding to wreck his life.
He posted on Instagram: “If you can’t give them the world they want, they’ll turn yours to hell.”
But his recent social media posts show Leviev — real name Shimon Hayut — is once more living life high on the hog.
The 31-year-old, who has denied being a fraudster, is now based in Tel Aviv while flitting around the world in private jets and driving supercars, and has been enjoying dates with Vogue model Kate Konlin.
In the last week, he has posted TikTok and Instagram videos showing him relaxing on a yacht, surrounded by designer handbags, and flying in a helicopter with Israeli beauty Kate — who claims he is the “the greatest man” she ever knew.
In each clip he seems to be mocking his victims, with comments such as “Love comes at a price” and “#Tindermoney#thankyou”.
It is torment for 34-year-old Cecilie, who was left suicidal and with crippling credit card debt, following a romance with Leviev after he convinced her he was head of a diamond firm.
She and fellow victims Ayleen Charlotte and Pernilla Sjoholm — who also appear in the Netflix show — have now set up a GoFundMe page to try to recoup some cash.
Norwegian Cecilie got chatting to Leviev on Tinder in 2018 and, after their first date at the five-star Four Seasons Hotel in London, he whisked her off, by private jet, to Bulgaria.
He then wooed her with gifts, including 100 red roses, and phoned her several times a day from all over the world, telling her he was working on a £51 million ($A96.9 million) deal.
After six weeks, he told her his life was in danger from business “enemies” and that he had to cancel his credit cards for security reasons — begging her to help him take out an American Express card and link it to her account.
Over the next few months, Cecilie rented a flat for them at £11,000 ($A20,900) a month, flew to the Netherlands to hand him £18,500 ($A35,180) in cash, and allowed him to run up eye-watering debt on her credit card.
She told The Sun: “People say I was stupid, but I truly believed he was in danger.”
She finally discovered she had been duped when a cheque for £369,000 ($A701,470) sent by Leviev to cover her costs was rejected — and when she then blocked him, he threatened her by saying: “Watch out — for every action there will be a reaction.”
An investigation revealed Leviev was in fact Shimon Hayut, who had served a two-year jail sentence in Finland for conning three women out of £167,000 ($A317,400), and was wanted on fraud charges in his native Israel.
Cecilie took her story to Norwegian newspaper VG, who discovered her credit card had been used to book flights for Pernilla, who he had conned out of £25,000 ($A47,500). But this was just the tip of the iceberg.
When the woman’s story was published in February 2019, hundreds more stories soon came in — including that of a woman who claims Leviev swindled her out of £74,000 ($A140,700), and a Slovakian private jet firm that said they were owed £730,000 ($A1.3 million) in unpaid fees.
As viewers of the Netflix show know, Leviev was arrested in 2019, after Dutch victim Ayleen helped police apprehend him in Greece.
Later that year, he was tried in Israel — over historic charges there unrelated to his crimes across Europe — and convicted.
He was sentenced to 15 months, and ordered to pay his victims £31,000 ($A58,950) in compensation and a fine of £4,200 ($A7,980).
But following his release, after just five months behind bars, Leviev instantly resumed his playboy lifestyle — posting Instagram shots of himself driving Ferraris and Lamborghinis and flying in private jets.
In one recent video, he shows off a bright-red Ferrari worth £250,000 ($A475,400) and seems to taunt his victims with the caption: “You paid for it, so have a magnificent day.”
In another, he is relaxing on a luxury yacht while smoking an oversized cigar and boasting: “I bought a boat” and taunting his victims by adding “#youpaid” and “#easymoney”.
He also hired a PR firm in a bid to polish his tarnished reputation, and began posting pictures of himself with celebrities.
These included Avivit Bar-Zohar, an Israeli Big Brother contestant and owner of a beauty business, posing beside his “prestigious Leviev Bentley.”
Avivit later told online entertainment and gossip magazine Radar she had never met him before, and that he was delivering a car that her company had hired for a shoot.
In December 2020, the convicted conman was accused of posing as a medical worker in order to get an early Covid vaccination, after he pictured himself getting the jab.
Ironically, he is also now running workshops to teach wannabe entrepreneurs how to be successful in business — charging them £250 ($A475) a time for his troubles.
Kate Konlin told Israeli magazine Mako he had hosted seminars in Tel Aviv for “dozens of men” who paid to “listen and learn how to succeed in life.”
She added: “He talked about his habits, about his life story, about his success,” and claimed they were so enraptured during the four-hour workshop that no one even left to go to the loo.
Incredibly, women also still seem to be falling for Leviev’s charms — with model Kate often popping up in his social media videos.
She recently claimed the pair had split but remained good friends, and dismissed all the allegations against him as “one big lie”.
The 24-year-old insisted he had shown her documents proving he is innocent, and that he made his money as a property tycoon.
In a pattern that mirrors the start of many of his romances, she said Leviev had lavished gifts worth £2.5 million ($A4.7million) on her, including a £250,000 ($A475,300) car.
She told Mako mag he was a “dream partner” and she belittled the stories of his victims, adding: “Listen, the sums they said he stung were equal to the gifts he buys me on a Saturday.
“It’s absurd. Why should he take a girl for tens of thousands when he spends such a sum as a matter of routine? It does not make sense.”
Despite flaunting his new notoriety Leviev continues to deny any wrongdoing — even telling one magazine he should be called “the Tinder Donor” because of the money he spent on his accusers.
Bizarrely, Leviev has also claimed he collaborated with Netflix.
Last week, on an Instagram account that was later shut down, he wrote: “If I was a fraud, why would I act on Netflix? I mean, they should have arrested me when we were still shooting. It’s time the ladies started saying the truth.”
He has now been reported to police in at least seven countries, but there has been no combined effort to bring him to justice for the crimes alleged in the documentary or by the hundreds of other claimants.
For now, he remains free to boast about his lavish lifestyle and mock his victims from afar.
Cecilie — who has been forced to file for bankruptcy and has had psychiatric treatment after her ordeal — sees his ongoing freedom as a slap in the face.
She says: “It’s not a happy ending for me. It’s unfair. Why don’t they go after him.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
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