Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev sets his eyes on Hollywood with plans for podcast, book and dating show

By now we all know of the infamous Tinder Swindler — whether you've watched the Netflix documentary or not. The pretend billionaire who scammed multiple women he met on the dating app by getting them to 'lend' him money has been trending on social media after his story was publicised by Netflix. The documentary may be out but this is not the end for Simon Leviev — he just signed a deal with the CEO of talent management company Gitoni, adult movie star-turned publicist Gina Rodriquez, to manage his venture into entertainment.

The Tinder Swindler, who's real name is Shimon Heyada Hayut, 30, is from Israel and operated under several aliases — including Simon Leviev — to fool women he met on Tinder into thinking he was the son of a billionaire diamond merchant before scamming them out of an estimated $10 million. He showered these women with lavish trips and gifts, using money he had taken from other victims.

The victims went public with their story which was then turned into a Netflix documentary, released on Feb 2, that got Hayut a lot of recognition. He is now using it to his benefit by signing a deal with Rodiguez, hiring her as his manager for his career in Hollywood, confirmed TMZ. Sources close to him revealed the conman wants to write a book, host a dating podcast where he shares the dos and don’ts of dating and has even pitched a controversial new TV show, which would see women competing for his love.

Rodriguez recently tagged him in her Instagram Story with the words, "It's a match!"

Sources close to Hayut added that he thinks the Netflix documentary "got him all wrong" and he’s looking to clear his name.

Hayut may have gotten away with it in the past but Tinder recently banned the conman. On Feb 5, a Tinder spokesperson told E! News, "We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019. He is permanently banned from Tinder. In the lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases."

The three victims that came forward in the documentary are Cecilie Schrøder Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm and Ayleen Charlotte. According to them, Simon defrauded them out of $250,000, $33,000 and $139,000 respectively. They have created a GoFundMe page to raise the £600,000 ($811,206) he stole from them.

Hayut's response to the GoFundMe page called the women manipulators. "Go ahead and help real associations… not these manipulators. This is what is called MARKETING," the 30-year-old wrote on a since deleted social media profile, according to The Independent.