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16 September 2025

Tinder Swindler Arrested on Interpol Red Notice

Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev arrested in Georgia on Interpol Red Notice after years evading justice. The case raises fresh questions about the effectiveness of the Red Notice system

Áine Macdonald

Reports confirm that Shimon Hayut – better known as Simon Leviev, the “Tinder Swindler” – has been arrested in Georgia on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice (The Guardian, The Independent). The arrest follows years of international attention after the release of the Netflix documentary which exposed how he defrauded women across Europe using dating apps.

Hayut previously served a short sentence in Israel after being arrested in Greece in 2019 on a Red Notice and extradited. His swift release at the time fuelled criticism of how ineffective international enforcement can be, even in high-profile cases.

Ben Keith, barrister and extradition specialist, spoke to Felicity Morris, director of the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, about the case, highlighting how Hayut had been able to travel freely despite the existence of international alerts. As Keith explained in an earlier interview:

“The problem with Red Notices is not their existence, it’s enforcement. Unless countries act quickly and consistently, individuals can avoid justice almost indefinitely.”

Red Notice Monitor previously addressed these issues in Why hasn’t Interpol caught the Tinder Swindler? and in an interview with Ben Keith: The Tinder Swindler: why isn’t he in jail?. Both raised concerns about enforcement gaps that leave victims without justice.

Now that he has finally been arrested, attention will turn to whether extradition proceedings are launched, and whether the victims of his frauds will at last see him face trial. His case will also be a test of whether Interpol’s Red Notice system can deliver accountability in the highest-profile cases.

Subscribe to Red Notice Monitor for developments and updates in this case.

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Image: ©Shutterstock

About the Author

Áine Macdonald
Áine Macdonald Paralegal

Before joining IHR Advisors, Áine worked at the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) as a Programme Coordinator and as a lawyer in the Office of Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws. Áine was the lead author of the IBAHRI’s report on the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as supporting author of reports into Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan and Iran, and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in the DRC. She also worked with civil society organisations to organise Parliamentary sessions on human rights issues, including universal jurisdiction and children’s rights in armed conflict. Earlier in her career Áine worked in the Magistrates’ Secretariat at the Ministry of Justice. She is an unregistered barrister, called to the Bar of England and Wales in November 2023.

Áine holds a First Class Master’s degree in Globalisation and the Law, specialising in human rights, from Maastricht University. During and after the degree, she was a research assistant on a project on how armed conflict affects children in unrecognised states. She earned her LLB in English and European Law from Queen Mary University of London in 2020. As part of that degree she spent a year in Bologna, Italy, studying Gender and the Law and Law and Psychology.

Áine currently volunteers at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre, as an Independent Custody Visitor in the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and as an advocate for the Free Representation Unit, taking on social security cases. She has also volunteered with the Global Bioethics Initiative, Education Partnerships Africa and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland.

She is qualified to teach English as a second language and speaks English and conversational Lithuanian.

 

 

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