MOVIE REVIEW: The Tinder Swindler

By Aisha Abdulrazaq and Favour Igbafen

Title: The Tinder Swindler

Genre: Documentary

Director: Felicity Morris

Duration: 1h 54m

The Netflix documentary tells the story of how three women - Cecille Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjoholm, and Ayleen Charlotte joined forces to hunt down Shimon Yehuda Hayut, a k.a Simon Leviev, the infamous Tinder Swindler who had been manipulating them to take huge loans to fund his extravagant lifestyle. 

He poses as a billionaire's son on the dating app to lure unsuspecting women into believing he is the son of Israel's diamond business mogul, Lev Levie and heir to the Levie empire. He poses on private jets with heavy security details and his social media accounts portrays an ostentatious lifestyle that's synonymous with rich kids.

Simon's mode of operation was to give his new catch a feel of the bougie lifestyle- high-end restaurant dates, private jet experience, luxury cars and trips to choice destinations.

He assures the women of his love and commitment and when he's gained their trust, he strikes! Banking on the emotional investment the women has in him, he tells them takes of how his business deal had gone wrong, how his enemies are after his life and the subsequent freezing of his bank accounts and credit cards to avoid being traced bu his detractors. He solicits monetary assistance from his victims and promises to pay them back once the coast is clear. 

These women, without question, gave him their money, cards and even took loans to "help" out their knight in distress. In all honestly, that's a red flag.

How can a billionaire's son be begging for money? Let's sum it up to an innocent act of love and affection. It's a psychological thing. 

Unknown to them, Simon Leviev was robbing Mary to pay Martha - a Ponzi scheme. Simon would use Cecille's money to treat Pernilla, then use Pernilla's money to spoil Ayleen.

After he's done maxing out his victims, he becomes cold and offers a fake cheque or jewellery- as was the case with Cecille and Pernilla. Well done, Simon "Yoruba-demon" Leviev.

Luck ran out on him when Cecille and Pernilla, after realising they've been swindled, took it upon themselves to expose him. They reached out to Ayleen and formed an "Operation Takedown Simon Leviev" team. 

This move was what brought about the highlight for us- Ayleen luring an already desperate Simon to send her boxes of designer clothes to sell to recoup some of the money she'd "borrowed" Leviev. Talmbout, swindling the swindler. In her words, she confirmed that she's still selling his clothes to date. Energy!!!!

Although Simon was apprehended by the police, they were not able to get him convicted but the women's bravery gave other victims the courage to speak up and prevent other people, women especially, from falling for his schemes.

The documentary exposes the menace of victim-blaming in our society and how it enables perpetrators in carrying out atrocities. Most times, they get away with it because their victims, for the fear of discrimination and mockery, would prefer to die in silence.

Since the release of the documentary film, Shimon has become a subject of scrutiny and "premium dragging" on social media. The conman-turned businessman to take down his Instagram account and he's issued a statement on coming out with his own side of the story. We're anticipating, Mr Shimon.