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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Where the Tinder Swindler is now - Shimon Hayut dating model after sick scam on women

Many of us would love to match with a handsome billionaire playboy on a dating app - but looks can be deceiving.

Simon Leviev, who called himself the 'Prince of Diamonds', seemed like the perfect man on the surface.

After meeting on dating apps, Leviev would lavish the women he was seeing with exotic trips on private jets, expensive gifts and posh dinners at the fanciest restaurants.

However, it was all a massive sham and not the fairytale romance that had been portrayed by the conman.

Known as the Tinder Swindler, his real name was actually Shimon Hayut, a 31-year-old Israeli fraudster who funded his lavish lifestyle of fast cars and luxury hotels.

Hayut claimed he was the son of billionaire Russian-Israeli diamond mogul, Lev Leviev, who had a net worth of $1.5billion and five kids - but none of them are called Simon.

Shimon Hayut pretended to be Simon Leviev to con women (simon_leviev_official/Instagram)

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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.

"It's over £200,000 now and it's a high interest loan so it's still accumulating," she explained on Lorraine this week.

"I'm bankrupt here in the UK, but most of the loans are in Norway so I'm in this limbo state that I don't know how much it's going to be yet.

"It's impossible to pay it down, you want to, you don't want to be in this situation but what can you do it's too much."

After scamming two more victims, Hayut was eventually tracked down with a joint operation between the Israeli Police and Interpol.

Via text message in May 2019, Shimon Hayut told ABC's Nightline that he was innocent and the accusations against him were merely about "a loan between friends that went south".

"They used me for my life, they got expensive gifts and everything, in other words gold diggers," he added.

"When I ask help they agreed to help and they know that I have some problems. I didn’t run from no one, it's all fake news and lies."

Hayut led a lavish lifestyle (ABCNews/Youtube)

Hayut was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $43,289 in compensation in December 2019.

However, he was released after serving five months behind bars.

It is believed this was due to a programme aimed at reducing the prison population amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hayut has launched his own website where ironically he offers business advice for free, stating that he "made it all on his own" and became a "wealthy businessman."

There had been rumours that Hayut had been back on Tinder since being released from prison, but a Tinder spokesperson confirmed: "We have conducted internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is no longer active on Tinder under any of his known aliases."

Now he seems to have settled down now as he is currently sating an Israeli model.

The Netflix documentary centres around three of his victims, Cecilie Fjellhoy, Pernilla Sjoholm and speaking for the first time, Ayleen Charlotte.

The synopsis for the new series reads: "Swipe, swipe, swipe… It’s not easy to find love online, so when Cecilie matches with a handsome billionaire playboy, she can’t quite believe it when he turns out to be the man of her dreams.

"But dreams aren't reality and by the time she discovers this international businessman isn’t who he says he is, it’s too late. He’s taken her for everything.

"Where this fairytale ends, a revenge thriller begins. Cecilie discovers his other targets and once they band together, they're victims no more: THE TINDER SWINDLER meets his match.

"From the producers of ‘The Imposter’ and ‘Don’t F**k with Cats’, this riveting feature documentary follows as they uncover his true identity and fight to bring him to justice."

*The Tinder Swindler is available to watch on Netflix now

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