A WOMAN who says she was conned by notorious “Tinder Swindler” Shimon Hayut says his sudden release from a Georgian prison is “a shock” and “disappointing”.
Swedish businesswoman Pernilla Sjoholm, who claims she was swindled out of £39,000, reacted after learning Hayut, 35, had been freed on a one-year suspended sentence.
Hayut – accused of scamming women across Europe out of millions while posing as Simon Leviev, a supposed heir to a wealthy diamond family – had faced up to ten years behind bars.
He was arrested in Georgia in September over an alleged £38,000 fraud in Germany and was held for two months in the country’s notorious Kutaisi Penitentiary pending extradition.
But German authorities reportedly cancelled their arrest warrant, clearing the way for a plea deal his Georgian lawyer Mariam Kublashvila called “fair and appropriate”.
Told of his release Ms Sjoholm said she had no idea he was about to walk free.
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She told The Mail on Sunday: “I wasn’t told because my case was not part of the German case, so of course this is a bit of a shock.
“I’m disappointed that he’s not going to spend more years in prison – but he has done two months, and it’s a plea deal, so he is convicted and that means he has admitted to his crimes.”
She pushed back at any suggestion the case collapsed due to weak evidence, adding: “It’s not what the attorneys made it sound like at first – that he has been let free because the evidence was so weak.
“That is not really the case. He had a plea deal, so I still see it as a win.”
Her reaction stands in stark contrast to Hayut himself, who hours before his release reportedly boasted from behind bars that he was “unstoppable” and would “change nothing”.
Ms Sjoholm, now living in Stockholm with her partner and young twins, stressed that Hayut still faces legal trouble in Israel, including a lawsuit by the Leviev family, who accuse him of falsely claiming to be related to them.
“This is now his third conviction. And he still has an ongoing case in Israel that I have been providing testimony for,” she said.
She called on authorities in the UK and elsewhere to act on outstanding reports: “This case was just centred on the German file, but from what I know there are still open cases from the UK as well, so I would hope the Met police would step forward and act a little bit faster.”
She also warned that his alleged behaviour extends far beyond romance scams, saying: “What a lot of people don’t know is that he also stands accused of committing not just romance fraud but crimes against companies and men… this is his nature, he’s not going to change. Only the law can change that.”
Hayut, who used the name Simon Leviev, shot to global notoriety after the 2022 Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, which detailed claims he spent years luring women on Tinder while pretending to be the son of diamond tycoon Lev Leviev.
He was arrested in Greece in 2019 and extradited to Israel, serving a 15-month sentence for fraud, forgery and theft.
His latest stint behind bars lasted just two months.
He was held in Kutaisi Penitentiary Establishment No 2 after an Interpol red notice linked to the alleged Berlin fraud.
He had been looking at a decade in prison if Germany pursued the case. But after authorities there pulled the warrant, he walked free with all other proceedings reportedly closed.
His lawyers Sharon Nahari and Mariam Kublashvili said in a joint statement: “This is an important decision. The plea agreement is fair and appropriate, and we welcome our client’s release and the cancellation of all arrest warrants.”
Victims remain deeply scarred.
Cecilie, 36, told The Times she is “still traumatised” after being pushed into nine loans totalling £190,000, eventually needing psychiatric care and antidepressants she “never wanted to be on”.
Pernilla, 38, previously revealed she also contemplated suicide after losing her £33,840 home deposit and then spending double that on legal fees while trying to fight her bank.
The pair later wrote Swindled Never After: How We Survived (and You Can Spot) a Relationship Scammer, detailing their long recovery and urging others to recognise warning signs.
Hayut, meanwhile, insisted from his cell that he didn’t remember “conning women out of hundreds of thousands” and claimed he was “either being set up or there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.”
