On a quiet Sunday morning at Batumi International Airport, the glossy façade of Simon Leviev’s globe-trotting lifestyle finally cracked.
The man once celebrated and reviled for conning women across Europe under the guise of wealth and charm, was stopped in his tracks by Georgian authorities acting on an Interpol warrant.
Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, is no stranger to handcuffs. For years, his name has danced between headlines and courtrooms, a testament to both his audacity and the limits of international justice.
But this latest arrest signals yet another turning point in the story of the self-styled playboy whose life inspired Netflix’s 2022 hit documentary, The Tinder Swindler.
Born in Israel in 1990, Hayut left the country in 2011 to avoid sentencing for fraud, theft, and forgery.
What followed was a decade of deception that spanned multiple countries and countless victims. In Finland, he was jailed in 2015 for defrauding women.
In Greece, he was arrested in 2019 for travelling on a forged passport. Extradited to Israel, he was sentenced to 15 months but served only five released early during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each time, Hayut emerged seemingly unfazed, reinventing himself as Simon Leviev, the fictional heir to a Russian-Israeli diamond fortune.
He perfected the performance of wealth: private jets, luxury hotels, and staged danger involving fake bodyguards. Behind the glitter, however, were women drained of their life savings—victims across Norway, Sweden, and Finland who together lost an estimated $10 million between 2017 and 2019.
The Netflix Spotlight
It was Netflix that catapulted his story into the global spotlight. The Tinder Swindler unraveled how Leviev’s charm, paired with technology, turned modern dating into a financial trap. The documentary transformed him into a household name part cautionary tale, part celebrity villain.
While his victims sought justice, Leviev basked in the notoriety, flaunting his freedom online and leveraging his infamy to court even more attention.
But with fame came scrutiny. The Leviev diamond family sued him for impersonation and defamation.
His victims, many still financially scarred, continued to press legal claims. And now, with his arrest in Georgia, the carefully constructed image of untouchability is again under siege.
Questions Without Answers
The Georgian Interior Ministry, confirming his detention, has so far declined to reveal which country requested the arrest or what charges he faces.
This leaves Leviev’s fate uncertain: Will he be extradited? To Israel? To Europe? Or will he once again exploit legal loopholes to secure an early release?
For his lawyer, speaking to Israeli outlet Walla, the arrest came as a surprise. Leviev, he said, had been “travelling freely around the world.” That freedom now hangs in the balance.
The Legacy of a Swindler
What makes Simon Leviev’s story extraordinary is not only the scale of his crimes but the paradox of his persona.
Even after exposure, imprisonment, and lawsuits, he continued to enjoy media attention, cultivating a flamboyant lifestyle on social media.
To some, he remained a symbol of audacious cunning; to others, a chilling reminder of the vulnerabilities in online dating.
Now, as he sits in custody in Georgia, the world watches to see whether this chapter will finally bring lasting consequences or whether the “Tinder Swindler” will once again slip through the cracks of international justice.
For his victims, the arrest offers a measure of vindication, though justice remains uncertain. For the rest of the world, it is another reminder that behind the glow of luxury jets and Instagram glamour, some fairy tales are nothing but frauds.
