Editor’s note: This article was updated to include comments from the Georgian Interior Ministry.
Israeli national Simon Leviev, known as the ‘Tinder Swindler’, has been arrested upon arriving at Batumi airport.
Leviev, who was born as Shimon Yehuda Hayut, was the subject of a popular 2022 Netflix documentary called the Tinder Swindler, which documented the various scams he pulled off. During his yearslong criminal spree, Leviev is thought to have conned some $1 billion from various people and banks through a ponzi scheme. He also pretended to be related to famed diamond kingpin Lev Leviev to lure women on Tinder.
In 2022, following the release of the documentary, Leviev told CNN that he denied the charges and said that he ‘just wanted to meet some girls’.
His attorney told the Israeli media outlet Walla that the reasons for his arrest are currently unknown.
‘I spoke with him this morning after he was detained, but we don’t yet understand the reason. He has been traveling freely around the world’, his attorney said.
Leviev was arrested in Greece in 2019 and later extradited back to Israel, where he was convicted of fraud, forgery, and theft, and sentenced to 15 months in prison. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he only served five months.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry told OC Media that Leviev was the subject of a red notice from Interpol, and that he was detained upon crossing the border.
Mariam Nikuradze
