'Tinder Swindler' Gets Sued By Diamond Mogul Family He Allegedly Impersonated

The real family that alleged “Tinder Swindler” conman Shimon Hayut impersonated is now suing him for millions. 

Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev, as well as his family, are suing Hayut for posing as his son Simon Leviev. He allegedly came up with the identity so he could pose as Leviev's son in order to dupe multiple women into believing he was a billionaire.

“For a long time, he [Hayut]] 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,” the lawsuit alleges, according to documents obtained by Page Six. “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.”

There is no actual Simon Leviev in the family.

As the hit Netflix documentary “The Tinder Swindler” showed, Hayut allegedly even hired a team of fake assistants and business partners in his impersonation of a jet-setting diamond CEO. He then allegedly conned his victims — women who thought he was their one and only — out of thousands of dollars by asking them to take out lines of credit for him, claiming he needed to hide under different names because he was being threatened. 

“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,” the lawsuit states.

Hayut, 31, has denied being a conman and told Inside Edition last week that he “was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder.” He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2019 for theft, forgery and fraud and ordered to pay $43,289 in compensation in December 2019. After serving five months, he was released. He previously served a two-year sentence in a Finnish prison for conning three women in 2015.

Chagit Leviev, the CEO of Leviev Group USA and daughter of Lev, told Page Six that “the biggest shock is when we saw the Netflix show and we saw the extent of his damage and his manipulation.”

She said her family has been aware of his alleged crimes since 2017 but due to his nature of traveling country to country, it was difficult for authorities to keep track of him.

“The truth is, that show is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “For him to live that life, he has to be conducting an international fraud of enormous proportions. There must be so many other victims."