Spoilers for The Tinder Swindler
Yesterday we talked about The Tinder Swindler, the astonishing Netflix documentary about a jet-setting conman who used Tinder to fleece victims around the globe. As I mentioned yesterday, the man who calls himself Simon Leviev is not in prison at this time. He served a couple of light sentences for his many crimes and is now a free man. Up until Sunday his Instagram was active and he was still living large, flying on private jets and driving luxury cars. He’s since deleted that Instagram account and has been banned from most dating apps. I hope that someone has been saving his posts to build another case against him.
Like other very popular documentaries and podcasts, The Tinder Swindler is getting the movie treatment. Variety reports that Netflix is in “early talks” for a film based on the documentary.
Variety understands that Netflix is in talks with producers about dramatizing the wild documentary that’s likely to make any Tinder user’s blood run cold. Sources indicate that the conversation is in early stages, and that the tone of a potential film is still being worked out.
“The Tinder Swindler” debuted on the streaming service only on Wednesday, and it’s already cracking the platform’s Top 10 lists in the U.S. and U.K.
Produced by “Three Identical Strangers” and “Don’t F*** With Cats” makers Raw TV, alongside AGC Studios and Gaspin Media, the 114-minute doc tells the story of Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut, who conned Scandinavian women into parting with hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending on dating app Tinder to be Simon Leviev, the son of Israeli diamond tycoon Lev Leviev.
Who should play Leviev? I’m thinking Taron Egerton but just because I love him. I wonder if they’ll be able to put out this movie in time to capitalize on the documentary’s popularity. The first of the Tiger King adaptations, Joe vs. Carole, is only coming out next month. This reminds me of the Dirty John series based on the true story of John Meehan. There’s also of course the case of fake heiress Anna Delvey. A 10 part Netflix series from Shonda Rhimes and starring Julia Garner is coming out about that on Friday. HBO is working on another show about her.
GQ UK has an interview with the first two victims shown in The Tinder Swindler, Cecilie Fjellhøy and Pernilla Sjoholm. Leviev has not been charged for his crimes against them and they’ve had to contact the media and advocate for themselves. They’ve lost friends over this, but have been a great support system for each other. Those women deserve so much credit for going public with their stories. There are surely countless other victims they are helping. I hope Leviev faces stiff consequences for his crimes and that his co-conspirators are charged as well. He should be watching this show from prison.
Photos credit: Netflix and via Instagram
I just saw tinder swindler when it came out but like the fictional tiger king I have no interest in seeing it acted out. We’ve seen the story already. I think it works if the first time you heard about it was on a podcast (like dirty John) or a magazine article (like many of them, including the Ana Delvey case.) Maybe it’s just me.
Same. And it seems like the Kate McKinnon movie hasn’t garnered a lot of interest.
Well, I hope Netflix is not being stingy with those ladies and they can build up their lives again.
Unfortunately, Cecilie strikes me as someone destined to repeat her experience with a conman.
When she said that she was on Tinder again after everything I had that impression too, but seeing how she was suicidal after Shimot would sure hope she avoids jumping on a private jet with any man she has known only for a few hours.
It was infuriating how the police didn’t do much to help these women and that it took journalists helping them investigate and going public. Also the fact that he’s out of jail after 5 months and back at it! He really really duped them so deeply. These ladies were brave for speaking up to alert anyone looking for love to be careful and getting all the online judgement too. However, they will be repaying the banks and ccc for the $$$ for many years to come. I won’t watch a movie of this since I saw this documentary. I actually had a close friend who went through something similar. This kind of guy looks for vulnerability as opportunity. My friend met a guy online and he moved super fast. As a result of just about two months—she cut off her friends (including me who tried to warn her that there were red flags, but he groomed her to think any caution was jealousy), lost her job, got pregnant with this guy, lost her money, got deported, and when he took every $ he could, he dumped her and baby. I won’t forget that saying —- if it’s too good to be true – better do your due diligence asap.
The police didn’t help because, in reality, not much of what he did was illegal. Sleazy, unethical, etc. – sure. But there is actually nothing criminal about convincing your girlfriend to take out a credit card in her name and then handing it to you. He was just excellent at convincing the women to give him money. The best con artists know exactly where that line of legality is and how to ride right along it. What he eventually got convicted of was fraud against the government (for faking a passport) and against the banks. He’s never been convicted of any fraud against the women themselves because technically, he didn’t.
It depends the criminal law in the jurisdiction you are in. Here in Canada, mens rea for fraud consists of the subjective awareness that one was undertaking a prohibited act (to deceit, falsehood or other dishonest act) which could cause deprivation in the sense of depriving another of property (or placing of the victim’s pecuniary interests at risk) or putting that property at risk. I’m not a criminal lawyer just an international law lawyer but you get the big picture. Here, in Canada, there would be a case against him. He could be charge for what he did. So i’m so sad for these women that the criminal law in the countries he did that do not considered it as a fraud.
I had a friend who a man did similar to. Wanted to get my friend pregnant after a month, which I thought what man is really up for that? Got very jealous and possessive, isolated her, did drugs, threatened to kill her multiple times, had a criminal past etc. She had two kids with him and then finally got out. He is parts unknown not the kid’s lives. She says he could be in jail for all she knows. He had multiple alias too.
I watched this documentary yesterday after and because I read Kaiser’s article. Truly sad and scary stories. Its ridiculous that he hasn’t served any time for those crimes. Anyway, I think Tom Ellis (Lucifer) would be excellent in this role.
He has the complexion for the protection, that’s why he is not in jail.
When he will come out of jail, he will be a ‘rich’ man, cause of tv deals, interviews, and such..
This is how our world works
Spoiler alert!
I’m very scared for the 3rd woman from the documentary. The one who put him in prison. He’s out free and he’s been making threats to her, now he knows that she’s the one who helped get him arrested. The fact that this man is walking free and Interpol can’t do anything is just baffling
He absolutely should be watching the doc from a cell. I honestly don’t think I’d be brave enough to go public.