The convicted con artist, Shimon Yehuda Hayut, made famous by Netflix documentary Tinder Swindler, was arrested in Georgia on Monday on Interpol request.
Hayut, an Israeli national who is also known as Simon Leviev, was taken into custody upon his arrival in Batumi airport based on a red notice from Interpol. He will remain in Georgia until his extradition.
Leviev, 34, was the subject of a popular 2022 Netflix film Tinder Swindler, which documented the various financial frauds he committed using the dating app Tinder to pose as an heir of a diamond mogul Lev Leviev to allegedly scam his victims out of $15 million. The documentary suggested that Leviev would gain women’s trust after taking them to expensive romantic dates and later scam them.
Leviev has denied charges against him. His lawyer told the New York Times that the arrest request had come from Germany and was linked to an alleged fraud case in Berlin a few years ago. In 2019, Leviev was detained in Greece and later extradited to Israel where he was sentenced to 15 months in jail but served only five months due COVID pandemic.
