Cecilie Fjellhoy thought she had met her prince charming to start with.
Exactly just just How a conman that is israeli alleged victim states he swindled her out of $200K
Cecilie Fjellhoy thought she had been met by her prince charming whenever she matched on Tinder with Simon Leviev.
Fjellhoy, a 29-year-old Norwegian masters pupil residing in London, stated she was swept off her legs to their very first date, which included a plane that is private to Bulgaria. Fjellhoy said Leviev shared with her he ended up being A israeli millionaire whom called himself the “Prince of Diamonds.”
“I became texting my buddies during the time that is same in an organization talk similar to, ‘I’m not sure what’s happening,'” she stated.
Exactly what started being a storybook relationship converted into a real-life nightmare, Fjellhoy said – the one that delivered her into debt and fearing on her security. It is a cautionary tale in the risks of internet dating.
“we hate him, he is therefore terrible,” she stated. “I have always been simply fed up with crying relating to this you realize? It is simply therefore painful. I simply hate myself that i did so this.”
View the complete tale on “Nightline” TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET
Leviev was born Shimon Hayut, a 28-year-old convicted con-man that is israeli served three years in Finnish jail for defrauding several ladies in purchase to finance their luxurious life style of personal jets and quick vehicles, which Fjellhoy said he enjoyed showing down.
Fjellhoy said Hayut defrauded her away from a lot more than $200,000, finding by by herself lulled right into a sense that is false of by his grand intimate gestures and flowery declarations of love. She stated she dropped victim to “confidence fraudulence.”
In June, Hayut ended up being arrested in Greece for making use of a false passport carrying out a joint operation between Interpol and police that is israeli.
Away from court Hayut told reporters from VG, a Norwegian socket that first broke the storyline, “we is certainly going back again to Israel, which is my house nation, and I also will face what’s waiting for me personally there and that is it, and we’ll sort every thing away. Whatever dilemmas we will sort it down in court. that individuals have actually,”
He now faces extradition to Israel, where he had been indicted last year on theft, forgery and fraudulence costs unrelated to Fjellhoy but he fled the nation before he had been set to face test.
In accordance with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, internet-facilitated relationship frauds, also referred to as self- confidence fraudulence, could be the quantity one sort of customer fraudulence into the U.S. throughout the world, victims of confidence fraudulence lose huge amounts of bucks every year, based on the FBI.
Fjellhoy, whom shared her tale with “Nightline” early in the day this present year, stated her love with Hayut started out innocently sufficient.
“this is the very first time where we felt like, ‘Oh my god i enjoy him. And it also appears which he actually likes me personally straight back too,'” She stated. “He’s texting in which he’s calling in which he appears to genuinely wish to become personally familiar with me mingle2, and I also think i’m a bit for that.”
Fjellhoy said Hayut informed her that their task as a diamond dealer, employed by a business called LLD Diamonds, kept him traveling constantly, so they really dated distance that is long. She stated they delivered one another love notes over text, in movie declarations and vocals tracks.
She stated he came to check out her in London as he could, but most of the time, she stated she was flown by him to where he had been. She stated he’d constantly allude to a component of risk in the work that kept him away, constantly on a private jet. At one point, Fjellhoy said he shared with her he couldn’t get back to London as a result of threats he had been getting, “but he might get us to where he had been.”
She stated Hayut stated become under constant hazard from unknown nefarious enemies. She stated she was told by him it had been a hazard of doing work in the diamond company.
Fjellhoy said Hayut surrounded himself with individuals whom assisted perpetuate the misconception, also going as far as to deliver pictures of himself and their bodyguard when you look at the medical center once they had been allegedly “attacked.”
In accordance with Fjellhoy, it absolutely was maybe maybe not a long time before Hayut made a huge ask, begging her to increase her personal credit line to him in order for any routes, accommodations and dinners could be scheduled under her title along with his expected “enemies,” as she stated he called them, could be tossed down their path.
“One associated with major causes why he needed it absolutely was protection… he required my name as being a cover, he said,” Fjellhoy told “Nightline.” “we understand it appears crazy. but why would he have this giant man with him if he don’t require the protection?”
Fjellhoy said she relented because Hayut promised to back pay her, but funding their jet-set lifestyle had been costing her. And also the cash he had been guaranteeing her was not to arrive.
“My angel My love i recently chatted towards the bank in addition they said that the transfer of Amex would be here on thousand percent,” read one text message Hayut sent her monday.
“the total amount he has to be in a position to simply work for a week is simply a great deal,” Fjellhoy stated. “It really is never ever just a few thousand, for us normal individuals who will be a lot of cash, but also for him it isn’t big money.”
She stated he informed her he required huge amounts of cash because he had “a whole group” he had a need to book flights and accommodations for. Fjellhoy said she assumed, as a result of their clothes that are flashy lifestyle, he previously cash and would spend her straight straight back.
“You did not also think it was an issue once you had been using up the loans as you had been therefore certain that this person and also the people who you had met had been area of the LLD Diamonds and therefore the funds existed,” she stated. “as he stated, ‘Everything’s likely to be fine following this week,’ then it did not. Therefore just ‘one more week’ and then ‘one more week.’ Therefore in the long run you nearly you did not also realize how much cash you really owed.”
And fundamentally, Fjelljoy stated, she was at love with him.
“this is the most difficult element of it … whenever I discovered he was not who he said he was,” she stated. “That the person that we thought that we knew and liked, he previously just done something within the many wicked means.”