Young, handsome, and charming, Shimon Hayut, a.k.a. Simon Leviev, planned an elaborate dating scam that saw beautiful women willingly send him money, trusting that he would pay them back.
Shimon misrepresented himself as the non-existent son of the famous Russian-Israeli diamond oligarch and ‘king of diamonds’ Lev Leviev.
In reality, he was a predator who leveraged the relative anonymity of online dating to swindle unsuspecting single women of thousands of dollars, which he would use to fund his lavish, jet-setting lifestyle.
Now, through the Netflix documentary film, The Tinder Swindler, we learn of Shimon’s manipulative ways and the heartbreak and financial ruin he left behind for his victims to deal with.
Polina is one of the ladies who Shimon almost conned. She was head-over-heels in love with the professional fraudster and had an eye for the finer things, making her the perfect prey.
We don’t see much of her in the Netflix documentary, so what happened to Simon Leviev’s ex-Girlfriend Polina? Read on to find out!
Who Is Polina, Simon Leviev’s Ex-Girlfriend?
Right off the bat, Polina was probably an easy target for Shimon Hayut. She is a beautiful and successful professional model with an eye for the finer things in life, the type of girl who worked hard and played hard.
Going by the story told in Netflix’s documentary, being a successful model, Polina’s itinerary would typically read something like this: Breakfast in Greece, lunch in London, and dinner in New York.
Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, met the gorgeous Russian model in 2018, and their love affair quickly blossomed into a serious relationship that would be the envy of many of Polina’s friends.
According to close friends, Simon seemed smitten by Polina, and the two looked genuinely happy and in love, the perfect match.
Not much is known about Polina’s personal life, but we do know that she is a model from Russia with a relatively successful career in her home country.
When she met Shimon, he charmed her with a caring personality and lavish gifts. As seen in the documentary, so engrossed did Polina become with Shimon that she failed to notice the red flags pointing to his fraudulent lifestyle.
Polina Dumped Simon Leviev
To their friends, Polina and Simon were the sweetest couple ever, endlessly doting on each other while eating life with a big spoon.
Never one to miss out on the fast-paced adventures of a millionaire’s life, Polina traveled with Hayut to almost every destination he went to for ”work” during the time they were together.
They jet-set from Mykonos to Sidney, Rome to Paris, New York to Amsterdam using money and credit cards Hayut had swindled off other women.
Of course, Polina was in the dark, not knowing that her supposedly wealthy boyfriend and heir to a diamond empire was a fraud whom the FBI was pursuing.
But Polina soon learned that her sweet, charming boyfriend, whom she probably thought she’d marry one day, was cheating on her. The same thing that happened to ex-girlfriends such as Ayleen Charlotte and Cecilie Fjellhoy was now happening to Polina.
Soon after, the Russian model made one of her life’s most decisive decisions: she dumped her supposed Russian-Israeli multi-millionaire.
Just like that, she escaped the potential financial loss and heartbreak that awaited her in the form of Leviev’s scam.
What is Polina Up To These Days?
Word on the street is that Polina is back in her home country of Russia, where she continues to pursue her modeling career.
The beautiful model has kept a low profile and has not made any statements about her swindler ex-boyfriend since the documentary’s release.
Although she was so smitten by Simon Leviev, Polina did not return to him after dumping him, which is good news for her!
Not much is known about Polina’s personal life; she has decided to maintain high privacy standards, which is understandable given all the unwanted public scrutiny.
A New Girlfriend Replaced Polina
In December 2019, Simon Leviev was convicted of theft, forgery, and fraud, crimes he committed in Israel in 2011.
The court sentenced him to 15 months in prison, but he only served five months before being released on good behavior. However, Leviev is still wanted by many countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Now 32, Simon is technically walking free and dating another model, Kate Kolin.
He was quite active on social media, with his Instagram account garnering almost 100,000 followers. But, he deactivated his private account as soon as Netflix aired The Tinder Swindler documentary.
Before deleting his account, Leviev promised to share his side of the story in ”a few days” once he found the best and most appropriate way to clear his name.
“Until then, please keep an open mind and heart,” he said in closing.
Simon Leviev has always denied allegations of conning others, saying people willingly gravitate towards him and give him stuff, including money, and that he never forced any of his ex-girlfriends to take out loans or give him their credit cards; they did it willingly.
Talk about the twisted mind of a con man!
