Israeli national Simon Leviev, known as the ‘Tinder Swindler’, has been ordered into extradition custody by a Batumi judge following his arrest in the city on Monday, the media outlet Batumelebi reported.
Leviev, who was born as Shimon Yehuda Hayut but has used several aliases, had been arrested upon arrival in Batumi based on a red notice from Interpol, Georgia’s Interior Ministry told OC Media.
Batumelebi did not clarify how long Leviev is expected to remain in Georgia before his expected extradition.
The New York Times (NYT) later reported, citing Leviev’s lawyer, that the arrest request had come from Germany and was related to an alleged fraud case in Berlin several years ago.
Leviev’s lawyer told the NYT after his arrest was initially reported that Leviev would be held in Georgia for three months, or until Germany asked for him to be extradited — which now appears to be the case.
Leviev 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 several million dollars 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’.
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.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
