A convicted con artist who was the subject of a popular 2022 Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler, has been arrested in Georgia, local officials said.
Israeli Simon Leviev was taken into custody at Interpol’s request after arriving at Batumi airport in the country’s south-west, Georgia’s interior ministry said on Monday.
Leviev, 34, gained notoriety after an investigative documentary uncovered a string of romance fraud and financial crimes, involving an estimated $10m (£7.4m).
He allegedly posed as the wealthy heir of a diamond mogul on dating app Tinder and swindled women into lending him large sums of money, which he never repaid. Leviev previously denied the allegations.
Authorities did not immediately provide details of the reason for the arrest of Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut.
In 2019, Leviev was convicted of four charges of fraud in a separate case and sentenced to 15 months in prison, but he was released after serving only five months.
According to Israel’s Ynet website, his lawyer told reporters Leviev had been “traveling freely around the world”.
“I spoke with him this morning after he was detained, but we don’t yet understand the reason,” they said after his arrest in Georgia.
Between 2017 and 2019, Leviev’s catfishing scheme – creating a false online persona – involved luring women into romantic relationships with an extravagant lifestyle of private jets and luxury holidays.
His victims shared their stories in the documentary series, saying they were courted by Leviev with glamorous gifts and getaways to gain their trust.
They said Leviev would later pretend he was being pursued by his “enemies” and ask them to transfer him significant sums of money, before breaking off all contact.
Cecilie Fjellhøy, one of the women featured in the Netflix series, said she gave Leviev more than $270,000 over the course of their relationship.
Last year, another woman Iren Tranov, filed a lawsuit against Leviev in Israel for 414,000 shekels (£91,000), saying she lent him more than 144,000 shekels (£31,000) which he never repaid.
Leviev previously told BBC Newsbeat he strongly denied the accusations made against him in the documentary.
Speaking to the BBC in 2023, Kate Konlin, a former girlfriend of Leviev’s, also accused him of emotional and physical abuse while they were together.
During an argument, Ms Konlin said he pushed her and she cut her foot on a step with a rough edge.
“I was bleeding. I felt dead. I wanted to kill myself,” she said.
After going to hospital, she filed a complaint against Leviev with the police.
Leviev later rejected the accusations and said he had never physically harmed any woman.
The Tinder Swindler became Netflix’s most-watched documentary in 90 countries when it was released in February 2022.
