Earlier, the Israeli fraudster tried to reinvent himself in Dubai; he launched a Valentine’s Day-themed cryptocurrency dubbed ‘Tind’, and drove around the city in rented Rolls-Royces
In February this year, Simon Leviev, an Israeli fraudster better known as the Tinder Swindler, stood on a Dubai balcony with the Burj Khalifa behind him and boasted on TikTok: “I can promise you all. You will never see me in prison. No more,” as AI-generated prison bars slid down the screen and vanished.
Seven months later, Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, is behind bars again. The Georgian interior ministry confirmed he was detained at Batumi International Airport on Sunday. “He was arrested at Batumi’s airport at Interpol’s request,” ministry spokesperson Tato Kuchava told AFP, without saying which state had sought his arrest.
Hayut’s lawyer told Israeli media that the grounds for his detention remain unclear. “I spoke with him this morning after he was detained, but we don’t yet understand the reason. He has been travelling freely around the world,” the lawyer said.
Cecilie Fjellhøy, one of the women whose ordeal was chronicled in Netflix’s documentary, said she was not surprised by the arrest. The Norwegian was 29 when she dated Hayut. She says she gave him more than $270,000 after being wooed with a private-jet first date from London to Bulgaria. This week she shared his Dubai boast video on Instagram, alongside a clip of herself smiling and pointing at a newspaper clipping of his arrest.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Fjellhøy, who now stars in the new Netflix series Love Con Revenge about romance-scam survivors reclaiming their lives, said: “I think I’d shown what I think and feel on social media. But just really happy that he’s in jail for the time being, and really interested to see what will happen now.”
Dubai controversy
Earlier this year, the self-styled playboy tried to reinvent himself in Dubai as an influencer-entrepreneur. He launched a Valentine’s Day-themed cryptocurrency dubbed ‘Tind’ marketing it as a Tinder-inspired “memecoin” with claims that five per cent of its proceeds would go to support women’s charities. He promoted it by handing roses to women outside Dubai Mall and appeared on local radio shows, sparking backlash once the interviews aired.
He also drove around the city in rented Rolls-Royces, posting videos on social media to project a lavish, successful lifestyle.
Victims of his scams — including Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, and Ayleen Charlotte — slammed the project, accusing him of exploiting their ordeal to profit again. “Simon Leviev is a twice-convicted fraudster who destroys lives. That will not change,” Charlotte told Khaleej Times in an earlier interview.
The coin quickly faltered amid skepticism and accusations of being another grift. By mid-2025, its value had collapsed to near zero, with no major exchange listings or development activity.
Serial fraudster
Leviev’s arrest in Georgia adds to a long trail of fraud convictions. In 2019, he was arrested in Greece and extradited to Israel, where he was convicted of fraud, forgery and theft. He received a 15-month sentence but served just five months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He had earlier spent two and a half years in a Finnish prison for swindling three women.
The Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, released in 2022, alleged that he defrauded women and banks out of nearly $1 billion through an elaborate Ponzi-style scheme while posing as the son of diamond tycoon Lev Leviev. The Leviev family has since sued him for appropriating their name.
Despite the accusations, Leviev has consistently denied wrongdoing. After the documentary aired, he told CNN: “I am not this person they have portrayed me to be. I made mistakes in my life, and I have paid my debt to society.”
While it’s unclear whether Georgia will extradite him or which country requested his arrest, his vow in Dubai that he would “never see prison again” has proved hollow.
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