Fake family is everything. Shimon Hayut, the subject of the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, allegedly scammed several women out of millions of dollars by masquerading as Simon Leviev, the heir to the Leviev diamond fortune. Now his fake family members have decided they’ve really had enough. The real Israeli diamond magnates are hitting the impersonator with a barrage of lawsuits including charges of “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 (Leviev) will pay and bear the costs of his benefits,†per a lawsuit filed in Tel Aviv seen by NBC News.
The Levievs are also going after Hayut’s business liaisons, family attorney Guy Ophir said in a statement Monday: “We will file a monetary suit against Simon and any other affiliate that will work with him, including some websites that have Joint ventures with Simon and/or have offered to buy cameos from him. Anyone that will try to capitalize from this scheme will be sued.â€
The lawsuit is particularly ironic for Hayut, who sent a hostile voice message to one of the women he scammed in the documentary, claiming he would sue her for defamation. When the film was released February 2, Hayut was still reaping the benefits of his alleged scheme as a free man in Israel. However, after the film topped Netflix charts, the publicity began to topple Hayut’s precarious lifestyle. Notably, the Tinder lothario was banned from multiple dating apps.