On February 2, Netflix announced the release of a British true crime documentary titled The Tinder Swindler. The documentary film which was directed by Felicity Morris, tells the story of a con artist of Israeli origin named Shimon Hayut who found and manipulated women on the Tinder dating app into lending him money that he never returned. Shimon Hayut presented himself on the app as Simon Leviev, the son of Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev.
He used the money he got from these women to trick more women into falling for his scams. He would buy them gifts and take them on private jet trips. One of his most effective and wicked schemes was pretending that he was being targeted by ‘enemies’ who had found and attacked him. He backed up his claims with very convincing images and videos, claiming that he had been saved by his bodyguard. He would then tell them that because of the ‘security breach’ his attack caused, he couldn’t use his credit cards. His end game was to get them to send him money to fund his extravagant lifestyle and defraud more victims. Some of these women even went as far as taking bank loans to help him.
The film garnered a lot of critical acclaim after its release and social media outlets couldn’t stop the trending hashtags so it was expected that both Netflix and Simon Leviev himself would try to feed off this fame. Nevertheless, the news that Simon Leviev was about to sign a deal with Hollywood agent Gina Rodriguez was met with great shock. Gina Rodriguez is notorious for representing clients like this who make headlines from scandals; she is of the firm belief that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Many have expressed their concern as to why Simon Leviev who was convicted for fraud would be offered such a deal. Perhaps what makes it even more infuriating for them is the fact that Simon didn’t serve up to half of his flimsy fifteen months sentence but was released after five months for good behavior.
According to TMZ, Simon wants to star in his own dating show where different women compete for his affection. In an exclusive interview with Inside Edition, Simon who is out of jail and living his best life with his model girlfriend, claimed that the documentary was a false representation of his character, as he wasn’t a scammer but “just a single guy who wanted to meet some girls on Tinder”. Although the claims of the reality show deal have not been confirmed, this isn’t the first time we have seen people rise to fame from scandals and crimes for which they should be in jail.
Conjectures have been made as to why the Tinder Swindler seems to be getting away with all that he did. One of such speculations is that his gender is one of the reasons why he has been given a slap on the wrist unlike the case of Anna Delvey, another Netflix documentary film focus who is still in prison today for similar crimes. Others have mentioned his race too as a factor, stating that a black man in a similar situation would rot in jail rather than bask in the spotlight.