Shimon Hayut, the infamous conman known globally as the Tinder Swindler, has been dramatically released from a Georgian prison after securing a plea deal, the Mail can reveal.
The sweetheart scammer, who faces a litany of fraud allegations totalling an estimated £7 million, walked free after receiving just a one-year suspended sentence. All other proceedings against him have been dropped and international arrest warrants cancelled.
The Dramatic Release and Legal Manoeuvring
Hayut, 35, had been held for two months in Kutaisi Penitentiary Establishment No 2 after his arrest in September under an Interpol red notice. The arrest was related to allegations that he defrauded a Berlin-based woman in a £38,000 scam.
Had he been extradited to Germany and convicted, Hayut could have faced up to 10 years in prison. However, in a surprising turn of events, Georgian prosecutors confirmed that Berlin has withdrawn its extradition request, paving the way for his freedom.
His legal team, comprising Israeli lawyer Sharon Nahari and Georgian solicitor Mariam Kublashvili, successfully argued that there were 'significant legal weaknesses' in the charges. Both lawyers are renowned for winning difficult cases.
A History of Evasion and Alleged Crimes
Despite being the subject of the hit 2022 Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, which detailed his alleged multi-million-pound romance scams, Hayut still has no convictions for those specific crimes.
His modus operandi involved posing on Tinder as Simon Leviev, the son of a billionaire diamond mogul. He would woo victims with extravagant displays of wealth, including private jet trips and stays at five-star hotels, before convincing them to hand over vast sums of money.
Hayut was previously detained in Greece in 2019 for using a fake passport and was extradited to Israel, where he served only five months of a 15-month sentence for earlier convictions of theft, fraud, and forgery from 2011.
Fallout for the Victims
This latest development is a crushing blow for the numerous women who claim to be his victims. Many were left with suicidal feelings and crippling debt after discovering their relationships were an elaborate fraud.
Following his arrest in Georgia, Swedish businesswoman Pernilla Sjoholm, who alleged on the Netflix show that she was swindled out of £39,000, expressed her relief, stating, 'Finally. I am the biggest fan of the German police force right now.'
With the cancellation of all arrest warrants, it now appears that Hayut is free to travel across Europe, leaving his accusers without the justice they had hoped for.
