Court documents obtained by PEOPLE, show that Israeli Russian diamond tycoon Lev Leviev and his family are filing suit against Shimon Hayut, who was using the alias Simon Leviev, for impersonating them.
The lawsuit against him claims that He 'defrauded, cheated, conned, falsified, and hurt women, men and businesses' around the world. He was convicted of fraud, theft, and forgery and was sentenced to 15 months in prison in December 2019, though he was released early just five months later.
The lawsuit states that,
"For a long time, he [Simon Leviev] has been making false representations as being the son of Lev Leviev and receiving numerous benefits (including material ones)."
The Netflix film based on this story, The Tinder Swindler, was released on the streaming service Feb. 2. It claimed that Hayut changed his name and lied on the dating app Tinder, saying he was the son of the diamond mogul. Under this fake name, he talked women into loaning him money, collecting an estimated $10 million from people around the world.
Attorney Guy Ophir, who represents the Leviev family, told PEOPLE in a statement,
"This legal action is only the beginning of a number of lawsuits that my firm is currently working on. In the next faze we will file a monetary suit against Hayut and any other affiliate that will work with him, including some websites that have Joint ventures with Hayut and/or have offered to buy cameos from him. Anyone that will try to capitalize from this scheme will be sued."
