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So-called ‘Tinder Swindler’ Simon Leviev has been detained in Georgia, say reports in Georgian and Israeli media.
Leviev, 35, was held after arriving at Batumi airport in the former Soviet republic after Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest.
The Israeli ‘conman’ allegedly spent years luring women through the dating app Tinder while posing as heir to the Leviev diamond fortune.
He is accused of posing with a lavish lifestyle which included private jets, luxury hotels and expensive cars – to gain the trust of women, then persuading them to part with huge sums of cash, claiming he was in danger.
The grounds for his arrest are not yet clear. Even his lawyer told Hebrew publication Walla: ‘I spoke with him this morning after he was detained, but we don’t yet understand the reason….
‘He has been traveling freely around the world.’
Before changing his name, he was known as Shimon Yehuda Hayut, and he was the subject of a popular 2022 Netflix documentary called the Tinder Swindler.
He faces a string of potential legal actions and is accused of fleecing love interests out of £7.6 million, ruining the lives of his victims.
Leviev previously told Metro his accusers were ‘liars’ and ‘paid actresses’, denying that he had never taken money from women, and claiming the truth would be revealed in his upcoming book and film.
What is an Interpol Red Notice?
It is a worldwide request to detain a wanted person.
These notices are circulated to police in all the 196 countries which are members of Interpol.
Those named in such notices may be suspected of a crime and wanted for prosecution, or may be sought to serve a sentence they have already been given.
A red notice is not an international arrest warrant, however. Each country can decide whether to act on it based on their own laws.
Some notices are publicly listed on Interpol’s website, but others are restricted only to law enforcement agencies.
The Georgian authorities did not immediately give details of the arrest.
Leviev was in 2019 arrested in Greece in 2019 then extradited to Israel where he was convicted of fraud, forgery, and theft.
He served five months of a 15-month sentence, gaining early release amid restrictions in the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Georgian Interior Ministry confirmed to local media that Leviev had been detained on a Red Notice from Interpol as he crossed the border.
It was not immediately clear which state had called for his arrest, or what the notice was issued for.
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