Simon Leviev (also known as Shimon Hayut) has hit notoriety pretty quickly after allegations were made against him in Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler documentary.
Leviev was accused of scamming numerous women over the dating app, leaving many of them in debt.
However, his current girlfriend – Israeli model Kate Konlin – has hit out at these accusations in an interview with Inside Edition.
She seemed to express surprise at the things Leviev has been accused of, and implied that they were fabricated.
“My god, it’s like how someone can build such a fake story,” she said, also confirming that Leviev has never borrowed money from her.
Leviev also made his own statements in his first interview since the documentary was released, voicing his intention to clear his name.
“I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder,” he said.
“I was surprised how many girls wanted me and how many girls offered to travel to meet me without them knowing me,” he said. “I’m not this monster that everybody has created.”
Having never been interviewed for the documentary itself – filmmakers visited his last known address in Israel and he was nowhere to be found – Leviev now denies lying to the women he “swindled”, and insists he didn’t mislead them as to who he really was, nor con or threaten them.
The victims who spoke out for the documentary have said that he presented himself as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul. Leviev denied this in his interview.
“I’m a legit businessman,” he added when he was asked how he funds his lavish lifestyle. “I bought Bitcoin in 2011, which [was then worth] nothing, I don’t need to say how much it’s worth now.”
He has also taken issue with how he has been portrayed in the documentary, insisting he’s really a “gentleman”.
“I’m not a fraud and I’m not a fake,” he said. “People don’t know me so they cannot judge me. I’m the biggest gentleman in the world.”
