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Looks like Simon Leviev, the conman at the centre of the Netflix true crime documentary Tinder Swindler, will finally have his day in court.
In the documentary, Simon calls himself the Prince of Diamonds and claimed to be the son of Israeli Russian magnate Lev Leviev, owner of LLD Diamonds.
Now he's being sued for millions by the real Levievs, who made their fortune in the diamond trade.
Simon, real name Shimon Hayut, allegedly used the Leviev family name to attract and con women out of their life savings, all to fund his high-flying lifestyle which included private jets, glamorous parties and luxurious holidays abroad.
“Simon Hayut is a fraud who stole our family's identity and has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars,” says Chagit Sofiev-Leviev, daughter of the diamond tycoon. “He has no relation to the Leviev family and has no affiliation with our company, LLD Diamonds.”
It doesn't look like he'll be able to charm his way out of this one as the family is intent on getting justice and having their good name restored.
Chagit says she's been inundated with requests from businesses asking them to pay bills that Simon racked up using their family name.
“Soon I started hearing from diamond dealers that he’d made out cheques of $350 000 in our name, but they weren't our cheques,” she says.
“Then another company called us and said we owed them $600 000 for private jets. They sent me a picture of his passport – it was Simon Hayut.”
Chagit is the CEO of Leviev Group US while her husband, Greg Sofiev, is the CEO of LLD Diamonds USA, a big name that trades both rough and polished diamonds across the world.
Their precious jewels have adorned celebrities such as Salma Hayek, Mariah Carey and Charlize Theron, as well as international royalty.
The company was founded by her father, Israeli businessman and philanthropist Lev Leviev in 1998.
But just who is Lev Leviev, the man behind it all?
The 65-year-old is known as the King of Diamonds.
Lev was born in Uzbekistan, and moved his family to Israel in the 1970s where he landed a job in a diamond polishing plant.
He later made a name for himself undercutting the De Beers diamond group by selling the valuable stones at a lower price and forging deals with diamond-producing countries such as Russia and Angola.
In 2018, Forbes estimated his net worth at more than $1 billion.
The King of Diamonds reportedly lives in Russia and also owns a number of jewellery boutiques.
Lev has ties to diamond mines in South Africa, investments in real estate across the globe, and also has a construction company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
He's also a major supporter of Jewish causes and sponsors many of the activities of the Jewish Learning Initiative.
Lev and his wife, Olga, have nine children: Chagit, Zevulun, Shalom, Moshe, Zvia, Ruthie, Joshua, Moshe and Asher.
“We started hearing word about Simon Leviev in 2017," Chagit says. "There are nine siblings in my family, four girls and five brothers – and none of them are called Simon."
Simon reportedly has a Hollywood agent and is rumoured to be getting his own dating show, but he might want to put his acting aspirations on hold and lawyer up for the court battle with the mighty Levievs.
“The show is just the tip of the iceberg. For him to live that life, he has to be conducting an international fraud of enormous proportions. There must be so many other victims,” Chagit says.
“In the end, the damage he's done was done in our name. He doesn’t belong in Hollywood. He is a criminal.”
SOURCES: PAGESIX.COM; EONLINE.COM; FORBES.COM; PEOPLE.COM; NEWSWEEK.COM
