Netflix's latest true-crime documentary, The Tinder Swindler, landed on the streaming platform on Wednesday and tells the jaw-dropping story of a prolific conman who posed as a billionaire playboy on dating apps through the women who set out to bring him down.
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But where is the infamous man at the centre of the story, Shimon Hayut - better known as his internet alias Simon Leviev - now? Here's what we know…
WATCH: See the trailer for new Netflix true-crime doc The Tinder Swindler
Who is Shimon Hayut/Simon Leviev?
Shimon Hayut went by the name of Simon Leviev during his elaborate scams so as to trick his dates into believing that he was the son of real-life Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev. While Lev, who is known as the 'King of Diamonds', has five children, none of them are called Simon.
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However, the 33-year-old scammer managed to lure women into his web of lives by telling them that as Lev's son, he was the 'Prince of Diamonds' and the heir to his father's incredible fortune. In reality, at that point, Shimon Hayut was already a convicted con man who had served two years in Finnish prison in 2015 for defrauding several women.
© Photo: NetflixSeveral of Shimon's victims speak out in the documentary
Following his release from prison in 2017, he fled to Israel to avoid a second trial for other fraud-related offences. A year later, in 2018, he started going by the name Simon Leviev and speaking to women on Tinder.
What happened to Shimon Hayut/Simon Leviev?
As the documentary reveals, Shimon defrauded several women he met on the dating app in order to fund his lavish lifestyle full of private jets, luxury holidays and expensive cars.
© Photo: RexShimon has been jailed twice for fraud-related offences
Three of Shimon's victims, Cecilie Fjellhoy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte, reveal how he convinced them to take out huge loans and hand over their savings after he claimed that he couldn't use his own credit cards because enemies were tracking him down. One of his victims took out thousands in payday loans to cover the money that she was sending to him.
Where is Shimon Hayut/Simon Leviev now?
After being caught back in 2019 in a joint operation between Interpol and Israeli police, Shimon was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for various fraud-related offences. As well as his sentence, he was made to pay victims NIS 150,000 [Israeli currency], which equals around £35,000 or $43,000.
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However, he was released in early 2020 after serving just five months of jail time, reportedly in a bid to reduce the prison population amid the coronavirus pandemic.
His current whereabouts is unknown, but there is an Instagram account under @simon_leviev_official, which appears to be private but active. The Netflix documentary suggests that it belongs to Shimon and that he currently uses it to show off his lavish lifestyle and lure other unsuspecting women in.
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