Swindling under the Spanish sun! Allegedly, of course. The Tinder Swindler was made famous by Netflix’s documentary about his alleged conning on multiple women on the popular dating site. Simon Leviev (born: Shimon Hayut), told women that he was the heir to a diamond fortune but ultimately had them sending him their cash. It’s estimated that he has scammed his dates out of a staggering $10 million. He did spend two years in a Finnish prison after being found guilty of defrauding 3 women but has yet to be charged with anything related to the claims in the recent documentary.
While his profile is now elevated, that clearly hasn’t slowed him down. As reported by Daily Mail, Simon was recently busted in the south of Spain for using a fake ID. After getting his Maserati stuck on a beach, he told local officers that he was on vacation and used an alternate name. Simon was with an unidentified Russian blonde, who was sporting a pricey Hermes bag.
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Simon was asked for ID and produced a drivers license with the name Michael Bilton. Cops suspected that his license was a fake but no arrests were made at the time. Officials originally asked that the court look into “Michael” for alleged forgery and the traffic offense he committed when driving his sports car into the sand. The summons went unanswered but is now being reopened once Simon’s real identity was discovered.
A court official stated, “An arrest warrant is out for the person placed under investigation. That’s all the information I can provide at this stage.” It’s unclear if the warrant could lead to Simon’s arrest in his homeland of Israel and eventual extradition. Simon was also busted for using a fake passport in 2019 in Greece. He was extradited to Israel on charges of fraud, theft and forgery. He spent 5 months in prison and was released on good behavior.
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Despite Simon’s carefree cruising, he’s facing a hefty lawsuit against him from the Leviev diamond family that he’s been impersonating. Which might be the reason he’s busy selling Cameos for up to $1,600 per video. Simon also got himself a Hollywood agent, hoping to cash in on his newfound infamy. He’s reportedly trying to land a podcast and even a dating show.
So far, nothing has panned out. Simon is currently banned from the dating apps Tinder and Hinge and it looks like the Instagram account he was running as recently as February has been deleted. At the time, he had over 1.4 million followers.
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[Photo Credit: TORE KRISTIANSEN/AFP via Getty Images]
