“So, he sends me a screenshot of a computer screen showing a transfer from some bank in Luxembourg to our account in New York. Hayut claimed he would do an immediate wire transfer, Badush recalled. Badush quickly froze the account and asked his friend to explain. Otherwise, Badush’s charity would be out a damaging amount of money. The key to Badush’s involvement in the swap was that Hayut would not cash the charity’s checks until the Tapiro Group checks were cashed in the Ahavat Shalom bank account. Hayut has repeatedly denied any accusations of wrongdoing, but The Making of a Swindler reveals a lot of suspicious details about the “charitable” check swap. Was the Tinder Swindler’s dad involved in his scams?
As The Tinder Swindler reveals, Leviev pretended to be part of the billionaire diamond Leviev family during his alleged ponzi scheme, and he previously used the alias Mordechai Tapiro. In hindsight, there are two glaring red flags in this plan: The charitable family in question was the Leviev family, and the company name on the checks was the Tapiro Group. The family would then hand the charity a large donation for all their trouble. Badush’s charity would receive various checks, issued by a Polish bank, from the mystery family, and the charity would give Hayut the same amount of money in turn through checks from their organization. Then, in June 2017, Hayut came to Badush with a money-making scheme: “A very wealthy family in Europe” would funnel “about half a million dollars” through Badush’s charity, and ultimately into Badush’s hands. Hayut, Badush emphasized to The Making of a Swindler, would show him the “VIP treatment” every time he visited Israel “every so often” Hayut also requested more funds to support his relatives. Badush obliged without question due to Hayut’s reputation, and a years’ long friendship began. Starting in 2012, Hayut began asking Badush for help raising money to address some family issues, including caring for his ailing mother and his brother’s large family. The Making of a Swindler introduces us to Rabbi Raymond Badush, an Israeli-born rabbi who now lives in Brooklyn and handles the portfolio of a large charity in New York called Congregation Ahavat Shalom. Is there any drama around Simon Leviev’s dad? Hayut had a plum social perch among the religious elite and rubbed elbows with the “chief rabbis of Israel,” as Youlzari told The Making of a Swindler. Leviev’s dad was the rabbi for Israel’s national airline, El Al, for 15 years. The resulting story - filled with subterfuge and a trip to the police station - questions whether the scam apple falls very far from the tree in the Hayut family. This week’s newest episode, “The Rabbi’s Son,” proves Leviev was at least working with his father, Rabbi Yohanan Hayut, as recently as 2017. Netflix’s new podcast The Making of a Swindler, hosted by Tinder Swindler director Felicity Morris and producer Bernadette Higgins, however, has uncovered a far more complicated history. “He is not Hayut anymore,” she says, suggesting Leviev’s relationship with his parents dissolved the moment he reached adulthood. She explains that she’s had “absolutely no contact” with her son since he turned 18. When the documentary visits his last known address, a woman identifying herself as Leviev’s mother appears on screen. Leviev (born Shimon Hayut) grew up on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, in the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak, an area described by journalist Amit Youlzari as “one of the most poor neighborhoods” in Israel.
While Leviev claims to be the son of Lev Leviev, the international king of diamonds, to his romance ponzi scheme victims, the truth is far less glamorous. Just over an hour into the new documentary The Tinder Swindler, viewers glimpse the roots of the film’s subject, Simon Leviev, alleged dating app con artist.
0 kommentar(er)
