29-year-old Shimon Yehuda Hayut, who legally changed his name to Simon Leviev, denied all allegations against him as a tinder con-artist who allegedly received large sums of money from women he was seeing, Mako reported on Friday.
Speaking from Greece, where he is waiting before being extradited to Israel, Leviev argued that despite the media attempting to portray him as a "monster," "we will deal in court with everything and it will all turn out well."
When asked why he changed his name to Leviev, which might seem as an attempt to pass himself as a relative of Israeli businessman, philanthropist and investor Lev Leviev, he argued that he has a legal right to change his name to whatever he likes, including that of the reporter asking him questions if he feels like it.
Leviev was able to enter and leave Israel numerous times using a false passport, which led to his arrest in Greece. The passport had been active in Poland, the U.S. and Norway, with Leviev using various identities before his arrest on June 28.
Cecilie Schroder Fjellhoy, a Norwegian citizen who currently lives in London, was troubled to discover that the man she had been dating for months, Simon Leviev, had not paid her back a sum of $500,000 which she loaned him.
She was comfortable giving him the money because, with a private jet, a bodyguard and a secretary, he appeared to be a wealthy businessman able to repay the money. Their dates took her to Amsterdam and Oslo where she was treated to a life of luxury, indicating she was dating a man of substantial wealth.
"Everything I thought he was, was a lie," Fjellhoy said.
Hauyt claimed in the Mako interview that in relationships people might suffer heartbreak and that "these women were flown around and had a good time at my expense."
He further claimed that even if he had taken money from women, the sums would not have been enough to finance such a lifestyle, which included various flights to the U.S. using a private plane.
He is also suspected of illegally obtaining NIS 10 million from Israeli businessmen who, the report said, "are looking for him as well."