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Netflix Buys ‘Tinder Swindler’ Documentary on Con Man Shimon Hayut (EXCLUSIVE)

Manori Ravindran
·2-min read

Netflix has picked up global rights to the documentary “Tinder Swindler,” about a notorious con man who lured women using the popular dating app and tricked them out of millions of dollars.

Produced by “Three Identical Strangers” and “Don’t F*** With Cats” makers Raw TV, alongside AGC Studios, the doc tells the story of Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut, who conned Scandinavian women into parting with hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a Russian oligarch named Simon Leviev on the dating app Tinder.

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The documentary, directed by Felicity Morris (“Don’t F*** With Cats”), follows the women who were conned by Hayut as they uncover his true identity and bring him to justice.

Hayut, who was imprisoned in Israel in December 2019 on a 15-month jail sentence (of which he served just over five months), conned his victims by asking them, after a period of largely digital courtship, to take out lines of credit for him under their names in order to pay for what he claimed to be were extensive security needs.

A Finnish woman who was involved with Hayut and says she lost $49,000 told The Times of Israel: “I’m a single mom to a daughter and I gave him all the savings I had. It’s a disgrace that they released him from prison. … He’s a bad person, and I haven’t been able to rebuild my life because of him to this day.”

The producer on “Tinder Swindler” is Bernadette Higgins, while executive producers are Bart Layton and Sam Starbuck for Raw TV; Jeff Gaspin and Eric Levy for Gaspin Media; and Stuart Ford and Lourdes Diaz for AGC Studios.

Raw TV’s top credits includes the critically acclaimed “The Imposter,” which centers on subjects who aren’t whom they claim to be. “Tinder Swindler” also marks the latest premium documentary effort for AGC Studios, whose “Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story” will also play Netflix after its CNN Films premiere.

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