Tinder Removes Man Accused in Documentary

Update: No one can swipe right on Simon Leviev anymore, Tinder has decided. The subject of the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler has been taken off the platform, the Washington Post reports. You won't find him under "Shimon Hayut," either; Tinder said he's no longer active "under any of his known aliases." After the documentary debuted, Leviev wrote on Instagram—where he had 200,000 followers—that he'd soon post his side of the story. But a notice on the page Friday said "no longer available," per Variety. It didn't help his situation that the documentary was a hit in the US and UK. Our original story from Feb. 2 follows:

That Cecilie Fjellhøy swiped right on Tinder was understandable. She was 29 and came across a profile of a man the same age, clad in Louis Vuitton and sitting in a private jet. That January 2018 move ended up being the most expensive decision of her life, writes Katie O'Malley for Elle. Fjellhøy is one of the women whose claims serve as the basis for The Tinder Swindler, a documentary released Wednesday on Netflix. As Fjellhøy tells O'Malley, the whirlwind romance checked out at first. She says Simon Leviev told her he was the CEO of LLD Diamonds; a Google search seemed to bear out that he really was the son of "King of Diamonds" Lev Leviev. At the end of their first coffee date in London he invited her to jet with him to Bulgaria. By March he had given her a £11,000 budget (about $15,000 at current exchange rates) to rent them a London flat.

But in April came a harrowing text reading, "Blood." The next one said "Peter, hurt," and showed a bloodied photo of his security guard. He was in danger, he said, and his security had advised he cease use of his credit cards so he couldn't be tracked. He needed Fjellhøy's help, specifically, her credit cards. She complied, and at one point took out a loan so she could give him more than $25,000 in cash. He ultimately gave her a check for about $500,000 to make her whole and then some. It bounced, and American Express investigators soon clued her in. Leviev was really Shimon Hayut, a man who had served time in Israel for theft and fraud. He was allegedly using Fjellhøy's money to wine and dine Pernilla Sjoholm "in a Ponzi-scheme-like structure" that she would fall victim to as well. (Read the full story to learn how much the women say they lost.)