Simon Leviev

Early life Leviev was born Shimon Yehuda Hayut in 1990 in Ramat Elchanan, Bnei Brak, Israel. At the age of 15 he moved to Brooklyn, New York in the US with his family's friends. According to interviews done by Felicity Morris, Leviev has been committing minor cons like cheque fraud since he was a teenager. He later changed his legal name from Shimon Hayut to Simon Leviev, using the surname Leviev to pretend he was related to Lev Avnerovich Leviev, an Israeli businessman known as "The King of Diamonds".

Criminal activity and legal trouble In 2011, Hayut was charged in Israel with theft, forgery, and fraud for cashing stolen checks. In 2012, he was indicted by an Israeli court and charged with theft and forgery of checks, as well as for leaving a five-year-old he was babysitting unattended. Later that year, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Israel, but was released five months later as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. According to The Mirror, he later offered "business advice" for a fee via a website. According to The Times of Israel, in 2020 he pretended to be a medical worker to get the COVID-19 vaccine early.

In an interview with CNN on 21 February 2022, he denied defrauding the women, claiming he was just a "single guy who wanted to meet some girls on Tinder." and that his money came from Bitcoin he bought very early on in 2011.

In February 2022, attorneys for the Leviev family filed a criminal complaint against Hayut with the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court, for libelous publications, infringing privacy and violating trademark orders. In July 2022, they filed another criminal complaint against Hayut for damaging the family's name. The hearing of the Leviev family's complaint was postponed after the Israeli prosecutor's office sent a request to postpone the hearing on the grounds that Simon Leviev is the focus of a criminal investigation for the same offenses.

On 15 September 2025, he was arrested at the request of Interpol after landing at the Batumi International Airport in Georgia.

On 14 November 2025 his attorneys Sharon Nahari and Mariam Kublaschwili announced that Leviev has been released from prison in Georgia without any sanctions. According to the legal team, German authorities had ended the enquiry due to a lack of evidence and cancelled the extradition request which had been the basis for his arrest.

In popular culture In 2022, Netflix released a video documentary, The Tinder Swindler, which describes his story as told by three women. According to The Washington Post, it became the most watched documentary on Netflix following its release, and was nominated for five Emmy awards.

In 2022, shortly after the release of the documentary, Leviev signed with talent manager Gina Rodriguez of Gitoni Inc. in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. He is working on publishing a book, along with a movie and TV Series based on his life story.