Prince of Diamonds Simon Leviev's success came from his
uncanny ability to trick people into thinking he was something that he wasn't. His apparent
life of luxury - as fraudulent as it was - proved attractive to the women he matched with on Tinder.
He was the ideal match to them, an instant "swipe right" if you will. In the minds of his victims,
the fact that he had chosen to swipe right on them was nothing short of remarkable.
If his Tinder profile piqued their interest, the over-priced dates he took them on sent them
head over heels. He gave the women he matched with lavish gifts with eye-popping price tags.
Their rich new boyfriend made a point to take them on adventurous nights out,
dinners on private planes, and joyrides in luxury cars.
Leviev explained his tremendous wealth by telling his victims he was the son of
well-known Israeli billionaire Lev Avernovich Leviev. The real Leviev was nicknamed
the "King of Diamonds" because of his portfolio of investments in the diamond mining industry.
The Tinder Swindler took this as an opportunity to call himself the "Prince of
Diamonds," lying to his dates about how he made big bucks as a diamond dealer.
Prince of Lies The "rich guy with
rich parents" persona that Simon Leviev portrayed
was a complete and utter lie. "Simon Leviev" wasn't even his real name. He was actually
"Shimon Hayut," a fugitive who had been on the run from the Israeli authorities for years.
Before he ever called himself the Prince of Diamonds, Hayut faced unrelated theft, forgery,
and fraud charges—calling cards for his future Tinder Swindling. He escaped Israel before they
sentenced him and ultimately settled in Finland. It wasn't long before he found himself in even
more hot water when the Finnish police were on his tail for defrauding three more victims.
He was sentenced to 2 years behind bars and eventually returned to Israel in 2017.
However, he fled the country once again. Back on the run, Hayut decided it was
time to adopt a new alias to conceal his criminal identity from the outside world.
He started calling himself Simon Leviev and roamed Europe in search of people to swindle
with his made-up backstory and seemingly endless access to cash.
In reality, he only had eyes for his victims'
cash, and he used the web of lies he'd spun to con them into giving it to him.
Cecilie’s Account One of the innocent people
caught up in Leviev's sinister scam was a young Norwegian woman named Cecilie Fjellhøy. She'd
moved to London to write her Master's thesis, loving it so much she made it her permanent home.
Cecilie and Leviev linked up on Tinder one night, and before long, she found herself swept up in
his intoxicating lifestyle. During their initial face-to-face meeting, Leviev invited his date to
accompany him to Bulgaria. He told her he had a business meeting for his company, LLD Diamonds.
Cecilie was overwhelmed, but she decided to tag along on this sudden trip despite having
just met the guy. As Cecilie herself tells the story, Leviev had irresistible charisma,
making it hard for her to say no to his outlandish requests.
He was surrounded by his posse the entire time they were together. His bodyguard,
business partner, and personal secretary all boarded his private plane en route to Bulgaria.
Cecilie has said this was actually quite comforting to her.
The fact that Leviev had a group of people willing to jump into action at his every
beck and call only made him seem more credible and trustworthy in her eyes.
After the trip to Bulgaria, Cecilie flew back to London. Even though they continued
to flirt with each other daily, she questioned whether or not she'd ever see Leviev again.
As it turns out, their relationship was pretty much the only thing Leviev was concerned with,
but not for any of the reasons she hoped or expected.
A week after their first meeting, Leviev hopped on board his private jet and made
his way back to London to see her. Cecilie honestly believed she had found the one.
She was reassured by the fact that her new boyfriend always seemed to have time for her.
It all seemed almost too good to be true, but Cecilie was falling in love,
and she truly believed that Leviev felt the same way.
Roughly a month into their relationship, however, he told her that some of his competitors in the
diamond industry had started making death threats against him. He claimed the threats
were so serious that he didn't feel safe going to London to see her. Leviev made a surprise visit to
her in Oslo while she was there on business, but things started getting weird after that.
He asked Cecilie for her credit card information, claiming his security team had advised him to get
rid of any digital trail his enemies might use to get to him. Cecilie bought this excuse and
gladly gave Leviev her card. It seemed like things were getting back to normal after that,
and they even made plans to move in together once his security situation was taken care of.
Things finally came to a head after the couple had been dating for three months.
Leviev started sending Cecilie pictures of him and his bodyguard covered in blood from
apparent fights with his rivals. He asked her for even more money to help him get out of dodge.
She obliged without a moment's hesitation, even taking out a massive loan to help
her boyfriend out of trouble. In the end, she lent Leviev over two hundred thousand
dollars with the expectation that he would pay her back in short order.
But that never happened. Leviev sent Cecilie a bank statement showing he paid back the loan,
but the document was fake. She sensed something was very wrong and ultimately cut off all
communication with the man she believed to be her loving boyfriend. She reported him to authorities
in both Norway and England, and that's when she learned Leviev had already been convicted on three
counts of fraud for situations that were eerily similar to the one she currently found herself in.
Romance Tale As it turns out,
Leviev had been operating a kind of romance Ponzi scheme.
He used money he stole from one victim to bankroll the lavish lifestyle to charm the next victim.
The money he swindled from the second person would go toward his pursuit of a third, and so on.
According to Cecilie's bank statements, Leviev used the money he stole from her
to pay for airline tickets for another female acquaintance, a Swedish woman named Pernilla
Sjoholm. Leviev first got in touch with Pernilla on Tinder in March of 2018,
which happened to be right in the middle of his relationship with Cecilie.
While their involvement was romantic at first, Pernilla says her relationship with
Leviev transformed into a close friendship as the months went on. Much like Cecilie,
she was fascinated by the scammer's suave, larger-than-life personality.
The two had known each other for 8 months before he ever asked her for money.
Leviev, it seems, had a consistent MO: he lured victims in with his extravagant lifestyle,
meticulously earned their trust for months, then exploited that trust by stealing their cash.
Pernilla first realized that she'd been conned when she was contacted by the Norwegian newspaper
Verdens Gang, better known as "VG." They were already hot on Leviev's trail with the help of
Cecilie, who had offered VG journalists access to her digital correspondence with the Swindler.
Now it was Pernilla's turn to help catch Leviev before he zeroed in on another victim.
Catching a Con Artist VG coordinated with Pernilla to bring
an end to Leviev's con. She decided to confront him once and for all, allowing VG exclusive
access to the whole thing. Pernilla traveled to Oslo and gave her former best friend a call.
The VG cameras were on for this climactic confrontation,
during which Leviev insisted that Pernilla's claims about him were nothing but lies.
Throughout the contentious phone call, Leviev can be heard shouting angrily at Pernilla as she tries
to get him to admit to his misdeeds. He refuses to do so and instead challenges her to show him
any evidence of the crimes she's accusing him of. Unfortunately for the Tinder Swindler, Pernilla
had kept the receipts and could verifiably prove that Leviev had used money belonging to Cecilie
and others to pay for gifts he had given to Pernilla during their relationship.
Leviev even goes so far as to threaten Pernilla for double-crossing him,
saying she'll pay for her betrayal with more than just money.
End of the Road However, it seems
those threats were empty as the VG hit piece on Leviev proved to be his downfall.
By telling Cecilie's and Pernilla's stories, the newspaper shined a
massive spotlight on the Swindler that made his international notoriety soar through the roof.
In 2019, Israeli police finally caught up with the Swindler following a joint investigation
with Interpol and Greek law enforcement. Leviev had used a fake passport in Greece,
which resulted in him being taken into custody and extradited to Israel. He had initially
fled the country to avoid standing trial on fraud allegations, but now he found himself
right back where he started with brand new criminal charges to his name.
It's been reported that Leviev's Tinder scams from 2017 to 2019
resulted in the theft of $10 million from his various victims. Who knows how much the
Prince of Diamonds stole in total since his defrauding days began back in 2011?
Even though he was caught dead to rights, Leviev continued to deny he was ever involved
in the scams he was being accused of. He claimed that the victims of his crimes were
the true monsters and that their allegations against him spawned from pure selfishness.
Corona Special In December of 2019, he was sentenced to 15
months behind bars but only served 5 months before being granted early release. The decision shocked
his victims, who felt like the justice system had stabbed them in the back. An outraged Pernilla
Sjoholm vented her frustrations in an interview with the Israeli news outlet, Channel 12.
Another victim, identified only by the initial "D," was so hurt by Leviev's
release that she openly wished for the con artist to die from the coronavirus
so he wouldn't hurt any more women. Ouch.
A woman known solely as Victim A felt betrayed by
the court's decision to grant an early release for Leviev.
She expressed her belief that he would undoubtedly get back to his swindling ways in no time.
Victim A was soon proven correct. It seems Leviev's commitment to lying about anything
and everything has no boundaries. Even after spending time in prison for his constant scheming,
he got right back to lying, this time to get an early COVID-19 vaccine.
In December of 2020, he made his way over to a vaccination center in the city of
Bnei Brak. Although he didn't actually qualify to receive inoculation, he impersonated a
medical worker and managed to sneak in to get vaccinated before he was supposed to.
Simon Leviev has continued to lie and lie as if lying was his full-time job. His behavior
suggests he hasn't actually learned anything from his past convictions.
It seems almost inevitable that he'll find himself caught up in another ruse soon enough.
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