Netflix’s chart-topping documentary “The Tinder Swindler” takes the same question that “Catfish” posed a decade ago and explodes it to new heights: What if the person you fell in love with through the internet isn’t who they say they are? What if that person was running an elaborate scheme that involved defrauding romantic partners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, sending them into crippling debt while he used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle and snare new victims?
Thus follows the true-crime story of the Tinder Swindler, known to the three victims profiled in the film as Simon Leviev (among other aliases), whose real name is Shimon Hayut. In their interviews, Cecilie Fjellhøy, Ayleen Koeleman and Pernilla Sjoholm describe (separately) meeting him on Tinder and developing a relationship that escalated quickly over the course of a few months.
Though the details vary slightly, the basic story is the same: the women allege that he posed as the son of an Israeli billionaire and asked to borrow increasingly large sums in their names to avoid being tracked by his dangerous “enemies” in the business world.
At the end of the day (or at least, the documentary), Hayut collectively conned women around the world out of an estimated $10 million. Just as they were drawn into his narrative, viewers have been flocking to Netflix to watch how it played out. Since its Feb. 2 premiere, “The Tinder Swindler” has been viewed for 45.8 million hours, becoming the first documentary to lead Netflix’s list of Top 10 films.
With the scandal receiving so much attention, here’s a look at the facts behind the film – and the fates of its subjects.
Is Simon Leviev Still on Tinder?
The documentary’s epilogue mentions that Leviev is currently active on Tinder, but representatives for the dating app firmly deny this.
“We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019,” a Tinder spokeswoman told NBC News. “In the lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases.”
Furthermore, Leviev has been permanently banned from all apps owned by Tinder’s parent company Match Group Inc., which include Hinge, Match.com and OkCupid.
To put a fine point on it, Tinder issued a set of guidelines titled “Romance Scams: How to Protect Yourself Online” the day before the documentary premiered.
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Is Simon Leviev in Jail Right now?
According to The Times of Israel, Leviev has been living as a free man since 2020. He regularly shares pictures of his extravagant lifestyle with his 100,000 Instagram followers. (An unverified TikTok account under his name has over 19,000 followers). On Tuesday, that Instagram account disappeared, but not before he announced that he would be back to tell his side of the story on Friday, Feb. 11.
“If I was a fraud why would I act on Netflix,” he posted to his Instagram Stories. “I mean they should have arrested me when we were still shooting. It’s high time the ladies start saying the truth. If you can’t give them world they’ll turn yours to hell.”
As shown in the documentary, Leviev was arrested in Greece in 2019 and extradited back to Israel, where he had been declared a fugitive. The Times of Israel reported that he had fled the country twice since 2017, when he was set to be recharged and resentenced for fraud, theft and forgery charges dating back to 2011. He reportedly had cashed stolen checks belonging to one family he’d babysat for and another for whom he’d worked as a handyman.
Leviev’s first stint in prison was in 2015, when authorities in Finland sentenced him to two years for defrauding three women.
In December 2019, he was imprisoned in Israel and ordered to pay $43,289 after being convicted on four fraud charges. But in 2020, he was released five months into his 15-month sentence through a program seeking to reduce the prison population so as to minimize the risk of a COVID outbreak among inmates.
“I was in shock from the decision to release him. I’m really disappointed by [Israel’s] justice system, which gives a man like that a reduced sentence,” Pernilla Sjoholm told Channel 12 News at the time. “He deceived people and left prison after five months? Did you go crazy in Israel?”
She continued, “How can you give trust to a man like that, who escaped from Israel twice? A man that deceived and swindled women in Europe for hundreds of thousands of euros. Where is the justice?”
Is LLD Diamonds a Real Company?
LLD Diamonds, the diamond company founded by Russian-Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, is very real. Although Leviev reportedly has nine children, Shimon Hayut is not one of them. His real father is El Al Airlines chief rabbi Yohanan Hayut.
While Leviev has yet to address the matter himself, LLD Diamonds has confirmed that Leviev has no connection to the company. Last week, the company told Newsweek that it has filed a complaint with the Israeli police.
“Our company has no connection whatsoever with Shimon Hayut. He is a fraud who has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars,” read part of the statement. “Our sympathies go out to his victims. His fraud has also caused ongoing confusion about our company. Nothing he has said, about LLD or anything else, should be believed.”
Are the Women Simon Leviev Scammed Still in Debt?
The documentary states that dozens of women were conned by the Tinder Swindler, far more than were named in the documentary, so it’s safe to assume that most of his victims have not received monetary justice. Days after “The Tinder Swindler” premiered, Fjellhøy, Koeleman and Sjoholm set up a GoFundMe page in hopes of recouping some of their losses.
“The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone. The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much,” reads the description.
“After careful consideration, and many chats, we have decided to start this GoFundMe fundraiser. So many people reached out to us asking if we had one, and it hadn’t occurred to us to make one prior to this … We realise there are a thousand other worthy causes to donate to, and remain forever grateful if you choose to donate to this one. All we want are our lives back.”
As of Friday afternoon, the campaign has collected nearly €90,000 ($102,153) out of a €600,000 ($685,152) goal.
“The Tinder Swindler” is now available on Netflix. Click here to watch the trailer.
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