The former girlfriend of the conman at the centre of Netflix ’s Tinder Swindler has revealed why she stood by the crook despite everything.
Model Kate Konlin, 24, publicly defended Simon Leviev after the popular documentary was released exposing him as a conman who posed as the son of a billionaire diamond dealer to defraud women out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Leviev, real name Shimon Heyada Hayut, was arrested in 2019 and jailed for 15 months for his crimes.
The Tinder Swindler became one of Netflix's most-watched documentaries and was watched up to 50 million times.
When the show released Ms Konlin said the documentary was packed with lies and Leviev was a successful property dealer.
She publicly stated that Leviev had never asked to borrow money and questioned "how someone can build such a fake story".
But now the model has spoken out about the 18-month-relationship, claiming she suffered abuse throughout.
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Konlin said she had no choice but to publicly support him.
Ukraine-born Kate started started dating Leviev in 2020 after he contacted her through Instagram.
To start with the Leviev was "obsessed" with the mondel but soon they started arguing and the conman would criticise her appearance, clothes, her weight and her skin.
She said she felt like she was "walking on eggshells".
After a few months and despite what Kate had publicly said, Leviev started asking to borrow thousands of dollars, quickly getting to $150,000.
In a voice not heard by the BBC, Leviev explained why he couldn't repay the loans.
He can reportedly be heard saying: "Kate, I'm a millionaire! And that's a fact. At the moment, I'm stuck. Understand? I'm stuck!
"Do you understand that in your screwed-up brain? That bird brain of yours. I'm stuck, Kate. I didn't steal from you.
"You gave it to me of your own free will. You lent it to me. I'm stuck, that's all."
When The Tinder Swindler aired, Kate "knew it was all true" as she watched it with him but Leviev persuaded her to defend him.
She got a lot of public abuse for defending him. Kate said: "People told me they wished that I would get cancer or be run over by a car and that I deserved the worst of everything because I was in a relationship with him."
Eventually she decided to leave him not long after the documentary was released.
An argument erupted, she claims Leviev pushed her and she cut her foot on a step.
After going to hospital, Kate filed a complaint against Leviev.
The BBC approached Leviev who said he has never physically harmed any woman, and called Kate a "liar".
Kate has spoken out to encourage women in a similar position get out. She said: "If a woman who is in the same situation sees what I experienced and how I got out, and that today I am stronger and more beautiful than when I was with him, she will hopefully see that she can also leave."
To make his lies seem more believable, Hayut even went as far as to legally change his name and hire staff such as assistants and a bodyguard.
The conman would claim that threats had been made against his life and that he was going to die unless the women he was seeing gave him the money.
Then he would simply disappear and they would never hear from him again - being left in thousands of pounds of debt.
His evil scheme became a vicious cycle as he used the money he took from the women to lure more unsuspecting victims into his trap.
One of his victims, Cecilie Fjellhoy, was left in a horrific amount of debt and says she has been labelled one of the "worst gold-diggers in history".
She matched with Hayut back in 2018 while living in London as a graduate and he organised a private jet from Bulgaria to London for their first date.
Just four weeks into their relationship, the conman asked her to take out a massive line of credit for him in her name because he needed to avoid leaving a paper trail.
Hayut took the money then left Cecilie high and dry - disappearing and then moving on to his next victim.
He was eventually sentenced to 15 months in 2019 but following good behaviour, he was freed after just five months.
