In an exclusive interview conducted just hours before his unexpected release, Shimon Hayut, the infamous 'Tinder Swindler', declared himself to be 'unstoppable' and boasted that no one could halt his activities. The 35-year-old fraudster, whose crimes were dramatised in a popular Netflix documentary, answered written questions from his prison cell in Georgia with unnerving confidence.
Defiance from a Prison Cell
Despite being incarcerated in Kutaisi Penitentiary Establishment No 2, Hayut's responses were characteristically bombastic. 'I will tell you this,' he wrote in his first major interview since the 2022 Netflix film. 'No-one has stopped me - and no-one can stop me. Yes they arrested me, but they only delayed me. I am unstoppable and I will get out from the same door I've got in.'
His words proved prophetic. Mere hours after the Daily Mail received his answers, the Russian-Israeli national was photographed strolling out of the prison facility as a free man. Hayut had been detained for two months in the Black Sea nation after being arrested on arrival under an Interpol red notice concerning alleged fraud in Germany.
A Dramatic Legal Victory
The fraudster faced a potential 10-year prison sentence if extradited to Germany and convicted of defrauding a Berlin-based woman of £38,000. However, in a significant legal triumph for his defence team, German authorities abruptly cancelled their arrest warrant, securing his freedom.
His legal representation included Israeli extradition specialist Sharon Nahari and Georgian attorney Mariam Kublashvili, both renowned for winning difficult cases. This victory means Hayut currently has no convictions relating to the multitude of allegations featured in the Netflix documentary, which detailed an estimated £7 million in alleged fraud and theft.
Life Behind Bars and Future Ambitions
Hayut described his time in prison as the hardest situation he had ever endured. He was locked 24 hours a day in a tiny cell with six other inmates, was only permitted to shower once a week, and had no access to television or the internet. He claimed he was left in the same clothes he was arrested in for over a month and found the experience emotionally draining, suffering from breakdowns.
Yet, when asked if he had any regrets, he expressed remorse only for his 2011 conviction in Israel and a 2019 incident involving a forged passport in Greece. He dismissed the accounts of the women he allegedly defrauded as 'hate and slander and lies' and claimed he was suing 'the Netflix girls'.
Looking to the future, Hayut was brimming with ambition. He claimed to have made 'tens of millions of dollars' from the exposure generated by the documentary and is in talks with a production company about a biopic, suggesting Zac Efron could play him. He also revealed he had found 'the one' in Dubai and dreams of settling down and getting married.
He signed off his interview with a characteristically arrogant message to his detractors: 'The next time you are looking into the sky and you see one light brighter than the others, it's not the stars. It's the wing tip of my private jet passing over you.' With all international arrest warrants now dropped, it appears the Tinder Swindler is, for the moment, free to make good on that boast.
