You might have heard about the famous tinder swindler, a man who pretended to be a billionaire on multiple social media sites, dating apps and in real life simon leviev was that man.
He earned quite the questionable title and even had a netflix documentary made about his criminal career. he has been accused of defrauding several women all over the world adopting a fake identity.
So who exactly is simon leviev?
How did he manage to trick people into believing he was a billionaire?
And where is he now?
He would entice these women by
appearing to be a billionaire and playing the part very well, showering
them with seemingly lavish gifts and showing off his luxurious
lifestyle. however it wasn't all as it appeared and their romantic stories ended rather tragically.
Who is simon leviev?
simon leviev was born shimon yehuda hyatt in bene brack israel in 1990. He moved to brooklyn, new york at the age of 15 with his family's friends who later accused him of misusing their credit card. In his 20s he was accused of stealing checks from the families he worked for and using the stolen cash to pay for flying lessons and to buy himself a fancy porsche.
simon's move has always been pretending to be something he's not. whether that's pretending to be a pilot, pretending to be a real estate expert or changing his legal name from shimon hyatt to simon leviatha and pretending to be connected to lev avenrovich levia an israeli tycoon renowned as the king of diamonds.
simon would use these fabricated identities to carry out his many scams and make quite a lot of the money he would use to fund his lavish lifestyle. so what was this faux billionaire lifestyle of his really like many of us would like to own private jets and supercars, buy designer clothes and have a beautiful model in our arms or at least that's what we tend to associate with incredibly wealthy people and that is exactly the kind of aesthetic simon leviev was quick to appropriate.
Rise of Simon Leviev on Social Media and Tinder
Simon leviev would flaunt his luxurious lifestyle on instagram, driving a lamborghini, posing in a private jet and relaxing on a yacht on a beautiful summer day. simon's instagram account was popping off as well the 31 year old had over 258 000 followers and acted like the billionaire he wanted you to think he was and it wasn't just on instagram either simon also joined the popular dating app tinder where he would continue to show off this luxurious lifestyle.
Simon also claimed on his tinder profile that he was a diamond merchant who has traveled the world which does have an element of truth to it he did travel all over the world. you've got to do that when you're wanted in israel, england, denmark, germany, sweden and norway. some of his recent instagram posts show him proudly sitting behind the wheel of a red lamborghini aventador spider or at the back of a chauffeur-driven limo. he also shared photos from private jets having expensive first-class cuisines. it's really not that hard to understand why people might fall for the con.
Simon would routinely post pictures of him enjoying the good life, showing himself, sitting pretty inside several private jets including a g650er with its refined beige leather seats and spacious cabin or flying in a private bell 206b jet, ranger 3 helicopter. he's also shown pictures of himself driving a bentley continental gt and a ferrari 458 spider or in the back seat of a rolls royce.
All this apparent wealth has led people to estimate his net worth to be somewhere between 1 million dollars to 5 million. simon is certainly not the son of any billionaires but he's got to be paying for all this somehow he is constantly seen posing in designer clothes on his social media posts. he's clearly spending extravagant amounts of money on luxury hotels and first class travel around the world partying and having the time of his life not only that he's not humble about it either simon doesn't just enjoy the more luxurious things in life. he enjoys bragging about it too after posting pictures of himself dressed in designer clothes from brands like fendi and gucci. he'll be sure to let you know that not only is he eating at incredibly expensive and exclusive restaurants. he's gonna be feeding that same food to his dog as well.
Simon Leviev went to Prison
In december 2019, simon leviev was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted of fraud theft and forgery his imprisonment was eventually reduced to five months. the apparent reasons behind his early release were his good behavior and the need to reduce the prison population to avoid an outbreak of covet 19. following his release simon was seen pricing a ferrari and posting multiple pictures of himself with a new bentley he's also been spotted hanging out with french montana. he's pretty much back to enjoying the good life along with his model girlfriend kate conlon.
After releasing from Prison
Simon leviev has managed to continue his luxurious lifestyle with sheer amount of money he has made swindling different women around the world.
One of these women was london-based norwegian cecilia fjelhai. they had initially met on tinder for months she believed simon and her were in a relationship. she knew him as incredibly wealthy, simon levith son of an israeli billionaire and simon played the role very well. After a few months of their whirlwind romance simon would pull a fast one on her and pretend like his life was in danger and he needed her help. Cecilia would eventually take out loans from ten banks and end up with two hundred thousand dollars in debt and she would never see any of that money ever again. that was just one of simon's many victims.
along with cecilia he would also scam purnila huelholm and eileen charlotte leaving them financially ruined and forced to start a gofundme campaign to recoup some of their losses from the swindle.
Adoption of a Fake Name
If it was that easy to pass yourself off as a fake billionaire, i think there would be a lot more simons running around. well for starters he pretended to be a leviath the son of a billionaire russian israeli diamond magnet lev leviev. hence the name change when asked about his fraudulent adoption of a fake name and identity, he said that he had the right to call himself whatever he wants but he's not fooling anyone. lev leviev is a businessman philanthropist and investor worth about 1.5 billion dollars. big surprise he picked that last name lev even made a statement calling out simon making it clear that he is in no way affiliated with the leviah family and reporting him to the police and made it abundantly clear simon is simply a con man.
Simon would continue to use his false identity to trick women on tinder, convince them he was a wealthy heir working in the perilous diamond trade and started long-distance relationships well that is before tinder banned him.
How did Simon leviev pull off con?
So how on earth did simon manage to pull off such a successful swindle.
After the release of the netflix documentary, it's going to be quite a bit harder to convince anyone these days but back then simon would pull out all the stops to make his story seem credible.
He hired employees like his faithful bodyguard and got his friends to help him by pretending to be business associates. simon would also use the money he had defrauded from other women to dazzle his latest mark with gifts and luxury trips. after all you have to be making some amount of money to sweep people off their feet as simon did chauffeur-driven limo dates and trips on private jets were his openers, his closers were a lot more nefarious.
after dating his mark for a while simon would send videos of his bodyguard bleeding and claim that his enemies were after his life. if not for his trusty brick house of a bodyguard that is all simon needed to ensure his safety was some financial support. Big surprise.. surely a billionaire's son wouldn't be strapped for cash but of course simon would explain all that away he would tell his mark that he needed to use a credit card in someone else's name so he couldn't be monitored to throw his enemies off his scent. these unfortunate women sent credit cards took out loans and lines of credit and even flew suitcases of cash to him.
obviously with the assurance he would pay them back he's supposed to be a billionaire after all he was the prince of diamonds. he flew private everywhere slept in the most opulent hotels and always dressed in designer clothes unfortunately for them it was all an elaborate scam simon never actually did repay them giving them rejected checks, bogus fake watches and bank transactions that never went through.
What Simon Leviev doing now?
Simon Leviev was a scammer after all and he's had years to hone his craft now that simon's swindling business has been exposed.He is trying in different areas like coaching, bussiness adviser , acting career.
Simon Leviev Website
he's decided to branch out a bit. simon launched a website where he states unequivocally that he is a wealthy businessman who made it all on his own and offers business advice for a fee.
simon Leviev actor
He also appears to be aiming for the big screen now. he is signed on with a talent manager gina rodriguez of jitoni inc in hopes of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry according to entertainment tonight. he is also looking into a potential podcast hosting, a dating show and writing a book.
Simon Leviev on cameo
simon has also joined cameo a popular app that allows celebrities to send personalized video messages to fans according to tmz. he made thirty thousand dollars in his first three days on the app charging two hundred dollars per video for personal videos and two thousand dollars per video for businesses.
Really using that boost in popularity the documentary detailing his various offenses gave him publicity and you know what ,no publicity is bad publicity.
I guess simon might have pretended to be a billionaire but at this rate he might just end up with a proper net worth in the millions.
so what do you think about the tinder swindler is his life of luxury actually real or is it just smoke and mirrors. I hope you enjoyed this blog.