Tinder Swindler is a real-life movie. Through Netflix Documentary, some real-life characters were used in the movie to show themes like love, deceit, scam, and hatred.
A woman, Cecilie Fjellhoy, who lives in London finds Simon (Shimon Yehuda Hayut) on a dating app, Tinder on January, 2018 who was immediately impressed about his wealth. He posted picture of wearing nice clothes, flying with private jets, sports cars.
He claimed he was a Diamond dealer, a company owned by his father LLD Diamonds. Simon met Cecilia on a coffee outing in a hotel and said he wants to travel to Bulgaria for a business trip. He expressed regrets that he has to travel immediately and asked if she would love to join him.
She accepted and Simon arranged a driver to take her home so that she could pack her things while the driver waited.
The both of them enjoyed themselves in Bulgaria and had sex. She returned the next day but didn’t believe she may hear from him again but she wanted to because she liked him. She was surprised that he reached out to her and asked her to become his girlfriend which she accepted. Little did she know that Simon was only a swindler, a Jet set playboy fake billionaire.
In the same time, another scene opens up with a lady, Pernillia Sjoholm who met Simon on Tinder. She was also impressed about his wealth and he invited her to Amsterdam. Pernillia was an independent woman and self-sufficient.
Simon made a romantic move but she restrained probably it was too early for her to begin such or she didn’t feel right to do it. When she returned, they started communicating frequently.
So, at this time, Simon had Cecilie and Pernilllia, but he also had another woman called Ayleen Charlotte. So he kept maintaining several relationships at this time.
Simon started his scam tricks on Cecilie. He sent her a picture of a man, his bodyguard called Peter, who was injured. Simon made up a story to Cecile that his enemies were trying to attack him but ended up attacking Peter.
He told Cecilie that his life was in danger and for security reasons he cannot do any transaction to avoid his enemies tracking him. He pleaded with Cecilie if he could use her America Express Card and also asked her to bring 25,000USD to Amsterdam.
Cecile didn’t have such money, so she took a loan from the bank to save her boyfriend. He kept telling her that she was doing all these for his safety and that within a short time she will benefit from it and they would live happily ever.
Even when America Express kept blocking her card because of the transactions, Simon did a fake pay stop that displayed exorbitant salary she should sent to her bank which could allows her to increase the limit he spends through her card to avoid blockage from her bank.
Simon uses the money he got from Cecile to party with his new girlfriend, Pernillia. He explained to Cecile that he needs to maintain the party life style for his business and for his image. All the amount Cecile borrowed as loan were totaling 250,000 USD. She told Simon that she really needs to be reimbursed.
So, he invited her to Amsterdam and gave her cheque of 500,000 dollars which was a fake cheque that bounced back. She reported to America Express and they told her that Simon was a Con artist.
She became so depressed and moved to Norway to spend her miserable life with her mum, facing mental health challenges. Owing 9 banks with a total of 250,000USD was much for Cecile so she went to a health mental facility.
At this point, Simon focuses on Pernillia. He ran the same scam trick he used on Cecilie. Altogether, she spent 40,000 USD on Simon. He gave her a fake cheque of 100,000 which didn’t go through.
A journalist from Norway, Erlend Arntsen who was already alerted by Cecilie, contacted Pernille and informed her that Simon was a Con artist. Pernillia meets with Simon at Munich and informed the Journalists so that they could have some secrets photographs and evidence with her and Simon. Simon gives her a fake Rolex wrist watch to pay off the debts since the fake 100,000 USD Cheque  bounced back.
When she found out that the wrist watch was fake, she called Simon and he threatened her.
When the reporters published the story, his girlfriend of 14 months, Ayleen, read the article and noticed that Simon used the same words with her as he used with the other victims. Unfortunately, Ayleen had already given Simon 140,000 dollars. She chatted Pernille and got some ideas. She also notified the police about Simon activities.
In an attempt to get some of her money back, she pretended she still believes in Simon’s love and played a smart role to swindle him to get some of her money back.
After Simon requested some money and asked her to sell off her car and house, she told Simon that she could sell some of his clothes and give him the money. Ayleen have experience in Luxury Fashion stores so it was possible to know original designers wear and also to sell them .
She sells the clothes and keeps the money. Simon was not happy about it and he threatened her. Ayleen notified the police of his next landing point in Athens, Greece and the name he would use on his passport, Baron.
Simon was caught and was sentenced to 15 months in Prison but was released after 5 months in 2020 because of the Corona virus outbreak among prisoners.
According to Netflix Documentary, after his release, Simon was doing well and launched a business website offering business advice for a fee.
Currently, Simon is wanted for various fraud and forgery offences in Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom. Authorities believes that he might have defrauded victims of about 10 million dollars from 2017- 2019.
He has also been reported to authorities in other countries. Simon told reporters that all the women who have accused him of fraud and theft did so for personal reasons and suggested that their hearts were broken during their relationship with him
He is threatening to sue Netflix and Norway Newspaper, VG, that broke the story as he claimed that they have defamed him. It is estimated that Simon has swindled over 12milion dollars from people across the globe. Since his release, Simon has been back on Tinder. He uses name like Biton Michael, Tapiro Mordechay Nisim and among others
Simon bodyguard, Peter and his business partner, Avishay, have never been charged with any illegal activities with Simon. The mother of Simon’s child, denied any wrong doings.
Simon has no connection with the Israeli Billionaire, Le Levive or the Levive Family and no evidence or fraud charge has been brought against LLD Diamonds for diamond smuggling.
Most con artists like Simon cut off contact with the victim if they have found out his real person. But Simon appears to have qualities of grandiose narcissism. He was still in contact with his victims, he became more confident, dominant and sensation seeking, angry and arrogant. He is also a Machiavellianism.
Simon currently lives in Israel as a free man. He no longer appears to have financial problems and his Instagram account shows he still lives a luxury life before he shut down his Instagram account.
Cecilie, Pernillia and Ayleen are still paying off their debts. Simon has never been charged defrauding them
Executive Producer: Nageena Ahmed
Producer: Bernadette Higgins
Written and Directed by: Felicity Morris
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