'Tinder Swindler' arrested in Georgia

In February this year, Simon Leviev, an Israeli fraudster better known as the Tinder Swindler, stood on a Dubai balcony with the Burj Khalifa behind him and boasted on TikTok: "I can promise you all. You will never see me in prison. No more," as Al-generated prison bars slid down the screen and vanished.

- Mazhar Farooqui

Seven months later, Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Yehuda Hayut, is behind bars again. The Georgian interior ministry confirmed he was detained at Batumi International Airport on Sunday. "He was arrested at Batumi's airport at Interpol's request," ministry spokesperson Tato Kuchava told AFP, without saying which state had sought his arrest.

Hayut's lawyer told Israeli media that the grounds for his detention remain unclear. "I spoke with him this morning after he was detained but we don't yet understand the reason. He has been travelling freely around the world," the lawyer said.

Cecilie Fjellhøy, one of the women whose ordeal was chronicled in Netflix's documentary, said she was not surprised by the arrest. The Norwegian was 29 when she dated Hayut. She says she gave him more than $270,000 after being wooed with a private-jet first date from London to Bulgaria. This week she shared his Dubai boast video on Instagram, alongside a clip of herself smiling and pointing at a newspaper clipping of his arrest.