Tinder Swindler villain Simon Leviev claims he's 'not a Tinder swindler'

The alleged Tinder Swindler is sticking to his claims of innocence — despite all the evidence against him in Netflix's shocking new documentary.

Simon Leviev is speaking out in a new interview with Inside Edition, claiming that Tinder Swindler isn't a true story. "They present it as a documentary but in truth, it's like a complete[ly] made-up movie," he says in the two-part interview.

Leviev (born Shimon Hayut) is the subject of Netflix's two-hour documentary accusing him of conning an estimated $10 million out of women he met through Tinder. Three of those women — Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, and Ayleen Charlotte — came forward in interviews, saying that he claimed to be the son of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev and lied about his career and finances to gain their trust before conning them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In December 2019, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted of fraud, theft, and forgery, but was released five months later on good behavior. Upon his release, Leviev returned to Tinder, but he was (finally) banned from the dating app this month after the airing of the Netflix doc.

But Leviev is doubling down on his defense that he's not a serial con artist. "I'm not a Tinder swindler," he says while sitting next to "his model girlfriend" during the interview. "I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder. I'm not this monster."

Check out a preview of Leviev's interview and the trailer for the report above now. Inside Edition's full special with Leviev airs Monday, Feb. 21, and Tuesday, Feb. 22. Check the local listings for times and stations in your area.

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