Simon Leviev upon entering the courtroom/Erez Harel
Ruti Leviev-Yilizrov, daughter of businessman Lev Leviev, and her husband Ephraim Yilizov, testified today (Sunday) at the trial of Simon Leviev, who is known as the "Tinder scammer".
They filed a criminal complaint against him together with their family members claiming that he damaged their good name when he impersonated their brother.
As I recall, the man who was born under the name Shimon Yehuda Hayut became known after a film about him was published on Netflix, in which it is described how he impersonated a son of the Leviev family and used this to receive favors and commit fraudulent acts.
Simon Leviev arrived at the court accompanied by two unarmed security personnel.
Throughout the hearing, he himself carried out the cross-examinations of the witnesses, after choosing not to be represented by a lawyer.
"It started on the family WhatsApp a few years ago," said Ruthie Lebiev-Ilizarov in her testimony.
"All kinds of questions started coming up there about stories about company checks that bounced and were not honored at the banks. After that my brother said that all kinds of girls contacted him on Facebook and said that someone was impersonating his brother and doing all kinds of things. Little by little we started hearing more and more about this phenomenon . We realized that there is someone walking around everywhere claiming to be our brother. He is using the good name we have built up over all these years to do things that are not exactly the line of the family."
"Using the good name we have built for years."
Simon Leviev, Hayom/Erez Harel
Leviev-Ilizarov claimed that they later filed a complaint with the police but felt that nothing was done about it.
"After hearing all these things, I was ready to be interviewed to say if anyone has any doubts, that we have nothing to do with this matter and he is really not our brother. It is not pleasant at all and even insulting that sometimes I arrive at places and people ask me to show them an identity card to see that I am not a fraud or Just pretending to be the daughter of... Bankers told me, 'What's the deal with your brother? The one who takes planes and yachts. Can't you get a hold of him?'"
Simon Leviev asked her as part of the cross-examination: "You've been a famous family for years, right? In a simple Google search that appears About Mr. Lev Leviev, you can see that he doesn't have a son named Simon. If this is a well-known family and everyone knows them, then it shows up. So if you claim that you are being impersonated, then people should probably know with a simple Google search that you don't have a son or a brother."
Leviev Ilizarov replied: "What to do that Simon Leviev has a lot of names and he introduced himself each time under a different name? I don't know if people searched on Google, it's not relevant."
Throughout the hearing, Judge Itai Harmelin recommended that Leviev hire the services of a lawyer or choose to be represented by the public defender's office.
"There is a chance that if you had a lawyer he would have had more questions to ask the witnesses."
Simon Leviev replied that he would take care of it.
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"They ask me for an ID card to see that I'm not a crook."
Ruti Leviev-Yilizrov/Reuven Castro
When Judge Itai Harmlin asked them how this resulted in damage to their businesses, they replied that in the diamond business there is a great value to their credibility as a family, and damage to their name may affect their financial business.
"In our industry, a deal is concluded after negotiations, with a handshake.
I know him, he knows me or my name, and where I come from," explained Ephraim Ilizarov, the son-in-law of businessman Lev Leviev, in his testimony. "If someone stops paying, you stop receiving credit, people no longer sell to you and require a threshold before you receive the goods, and word spread pretty fast.
When someone reaches such a situation, it takes him a long time to cover up the bad name he got.
You need to start getting signatures from people who will sign for you."
Ephraim Ilizarov recalled when the "Simon Leviev" affair first came into his life. "I started hearing from people that my brother-in-law was going out with girls and not paying them," Ilizirov said in his testimony. "I felt very uncomfortable and I didn't understand where it came from come.
Everyone knows that there is no one who does not pay money he owes.
Our family in the diamond industry is known to be trustworthy.
After that, a person from the field of aviation and airplanes came, and told me that my brother-in-law was taking airplanes and cars from him.
He said it was Leviev's son from the diamond business and that his name was Simon Leviev.
The guy was poor, he was sobbing in my office and thought I would give him some of the money back.
I say that this is not true and it is a fact that the entire testimony is very vague."
"It takes a long time to cover up the bad name that came out."
Lev Leviev/GettyImages
During the cross-examination, Simon Leviev asked Ilizarov: "Someone said 'Simon Leviev,' so obviously if I flew on a plane I should have flown under the name 'Simon Leviev.' In that event, I would have been stopped at the border crossing. It is a fact that I was stopped in Greece with a fake passport and I would love to know if one of these names appeared on the flight chart."
The defense attorney for the couple, attorney Guy Ofir, criticized Simon Leviev's questions. "The defendant presented all kinds of theses and factual and professional assumptions that the witness should not know, and should not know when there was an Interpol warrant, when he flew and what would have happened to him if he had flown In the identity of Simon Leviev."
"I want to say that after I was released from prison, I gave an interview on prime time in which I clearly said that I have no connection to the Leviev family," said Simon Leviev. "So to come and say that I came and introduced myself and went out with girls?
This is something that is completely unfounded and the opposite is true."
Adv. Guy Ofir/Reuven Castro
On behalf of attorney Guy Ophir, who represents the members of the Leviev family together with attorneys Rui Ben David and Victoria Reznik, it was said: "Today the evidence trial against the Tinder fraudster actually began. This procedure, because in a reformed world, the public prosecutor's office would be here and manage the case. In practice, things are not moving with the public prosecutor's office at the moment. Half of the Western world knows that Simon Leviev impersonated a member of the Leviev family. It is hardly something that should be questioned at all, but the police, the public prosecutor's office, both in Israel and abroad "L, none of them have moved yet and have not progressed to an indictment even though we have been in this affair for several years.
Simon Leviev continues to act.
His victims were interviewed by the media and a situation arose that we are here in this process, the last line that can stop him.
I really hope that we will get a resounding conviction here that will lead to the arrest of this person and I really hope that maybe the prosecution authorities will wake up and do their job."
Ephraim Yilizarov told Walla! at the end of the hearing: "After everyone has already gotten off the story, each for his own reasons, we hope that we are the ones who will be able to prove the his fault and to return to the victims some of the damages they suffered."
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