The subject of the Netflix true-crime documentary is being sued for millions of dollars as he 'stole' Lev Leviev's family identity and 'tried to exploit' the family's good name to con his victims.
- Mar 1, 2022
AceShowbiz - The man who was investigated in Netflix's true-crime documentary "The Tinder Swindler" has been slapped with millions worth of lawsuit filed by the real Leviev diamond family to which he allegedly pretended to belong. The subject of the doc, Shimon Hayut, is being sued for impersonating them and unjustly enriching himself using their last name.
Israeli Russian diamond tycoon Lev Leviev and his family, including daughter Chagit Leviev, the CEO of Leviev Group U.S.A., filed the court documents against Shimon on Monday, February 28. In the lawsuit, Guy Ophir, the lawyer for the diamond mogul, accused Shimon of defrauding, cheating, conning, falsifying as well as hurting women, men and businesses both in Israel and worldwide.
"For a long time, he [Shimon] has been making false representations as being the son of Lev Leviev and receiving numerous benefits (including material ones), cunningly and using false words, claiming to be a member of the Leviev Family, and that his family will pay and bear the costs of his benefits," read the petition. "He even used the LLD Diamonds trademark to make his victims believe that he was indeed part of the diamond company (it's CEO no less, per his signature) and was a member of the Leviev Family."
The lawsuit further stated that Shimon used Tinder to emotionally manipulate his victims. "The defendant used the dating application 'Tinder' to locate women who he then emotionally manipulated, cunningly bamboozled of funds, and eventually convinced to transfer large sums of money to him under the guise of being on the run from individuals intending on hurting him," read the paperwork.
In his statement, attorney Guy vowed that more legal action may be forthcoming. "This legal action is only the beginning of a number of lawsuits that my firm is currently working on," he insisted. "In the next [phase] we will file a monetary suit against [Shimon] and any other affiliate that will work with him, including some websites that have Joint ventures with [Shimon] and/or have offered to buy cameos from him. Anyone that will try to capitalize from this scheme will be sued."
In a separate statement, Lev's daughter Chagit dubbed Shimon a "fraud who stole [her] family's identity and has tried to exploit [her family's] good name to con victims out of millions of dollars." She further stressed, "He has no relation to the Leviev family and has no affiliation with our company LLD Diamonds."
"I am relieved that his real identity and actions have been globally exposed, and hopefully this will bring an end to his unscrupulous actions," Chagit noted. "The lawsuit we filed today is just the first step out of many we will be taking to have him face justice and get the sentence he deserves."
"The Tinder Swindler", which premiered on February 2, featured interviews with multiple women who claimed that they were scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by Shimon. He pretended to be the son of Lev and lured women in with luxurious first dates.
Under his false identity, he would charm women and persuade them to loan him money, swindling an estimated $10 million from people across the globe. Though he was convicted of fraud, theft as well as forgery and sentenced to 15 months in prison in December 2019, he was released early only five months later.
