SIMON Leviev posed as the son of billionaire diamantaire Lev Leviev, as seen in the new Netflix, series the Tindler Swindler.
But the LLD Diamonds CEO does have real sons – and they’ve hit headlines before.
Who is Lev Leviev?
Shimon Hayut posed as the diamond mogul’s son, heir to millions.
He duped women out of their hard-earned money as he frolicked around Europe flaunting his stolen wealth.
LLD Diamonds and the founder Lev Leviev do very much exist in the real world – but they have nothing to do with the master conman.
“The King of Diamonds” heads up the Russian-Israeli world-renowned diamond cutters..
His parents, Avner and Chana Leviev, were prominent in the Bukharian Jewish community in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
But his family uprooted and moved to Israel in the seventies when he was 15, where he started in the diamond trade as an apprentice at a polishing plant and then established his own plant.
In 1992, he moved to Russia and took over jewellery factory, Ruis Diamonds Ltd.
He began to expand to eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989.
He is also a major supporter of Jewish causes and sponsors many of the activities of the Jewish Learning Initiative.
He has a wife, Olga and nine children. The family spent a stint living in Hampstead, London but as of 2018 are reported to be living in Russia.
Who are LLD Diamonds?
The company is listed as being active since 1996 and is one of the biggest names in the business, headquartered in New York.
According to the company website, they own high-end diamond jewellery boutiques around the world, and large jewellery chains in Europe.
LLD Diamonds confirmed to Newsweek that Shimon Hayut, the Israeli conman featured in the new Netflix series, the Tinder Swindler, has nothing to do with the company.
They said: “He [Hayut] is a fraud who has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars.
“Our sympathies go out to his victims. His fraud has also caused ongoing confusion about our company. Nothing he has said, about LLD or anything else, should be believed.”
Who are Lev Leviev’s children?
Leviev has nine children, a few of which head up different factions of his company.
His daughter, Chagit Leviev Sofiev is currently the President of the Leviev Group USA as well as serving as CEO for Africa Israel USA.
Her husband, Greg Sofiev, is the CEO of LLD Diamond USA.
He has real sons too, who have been in the news too, not for conning anyone but for allegedly smuggling diamonds into Israel in 2018.
Brothers Zevulun and Moshe were accused of smuggling $80million worth of diamonds as part of a ring of six other employees of LLD.
But lawyers said at the time that the allegations were “baseless” and the arrests had been appeared to be a tactic to “illegitimately pressure his father”, Reuters reported.
Younger children Joshua and Ruthie were reported to have lived with the family when they were living in London.
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