‘Exchange him for the hostages’: The Tinder Swindler visited an Israel military base for clout, took back gifts when barred from taking photos
Shimoyon Hayut, a con man whose exploits scamming women in Norway, Finland, and Sweden out of hundreds of thousands of dollars under the name Simon Leviev were detailed in an investigative series by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang and in the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, was turned away from an Israeli military base in Otef on Wednesday, reported Israeli journalist Daniel Amram.
“According to … soldiers, the Tinder Swindler … arrived today at one of the bases in Otef to give food to the soldiers,” Amram wrote on X in Hebrew. "When he was told that he would not be able to take a picture with the soldiers due to a security issue, he took everything back and left the place.”
Hayut, who changed his name to Leviev to pose as the son of a Russian-Israeli diamond mogul called Lev Leviev, used Tinder to cultivate relationships with women who he would then scam into lending him huge sums of money which he had no intention of ever paying back, reported the Times of Israel.
He was charged in Israel with theft, forgery, and fraud in 2011 for cashing stolen checks, which he took from families he did odd jobs for, including one whose child he was babysitting. But he fled the country before he could be sentenced and set up shop in Finland, where he was eventually charged with defrauding three women in 2015 and sentenced to two years in jail.
After he served his time he was deported in 2017 to Israel where he was charged again and re-sentenced, but he skipped town, fleeing Israel again and adopting a fake persona.
According to the Verdens Gang report, Hayut would find his victims on Tinder, then seduce them with private jet trips, swanky hotels, and high-price dinners.
Hayut was finally jailed in Israel in 2019, but only sentenced to 15 months in prison. He served five of those months, leaving prison early for good behavior, reported the South China Morning Post.
One of his ex-girlfriends, model Kate Konlin, who initially defended him when the Netflix documentary came out before claiming he pushed her in an argument, joked that he should be exchanged for hostages taken by Hamas, according to Amram.
Over 200 people, including soldiers and civilians, were taken captive by Hamas in their initial assault in the South of Israel on October 7th, reported Al Jazeera.
“Let’s offer to exchange him for the hostages,” Knoline said.
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