Cecilie Fjellhoy thought she had met her prince charming in the beginning.
just How a conman that is israeli alleged victim states he swindled her out of $200K
Cecilie Fjellhoy thought she had met her prince charming whenever she matched on Tinder with Simon Leviev.
Fjellhoy, a 29-year-old Norwegian masters pupil surviving in London, stated she had been swept off her legs on the very very first date, including a personal airplane trip to Bulgaria. Fjellhoy said Leviev shared with her he had been A israeli millionaire whom called himself the «Prince of Diamonds.»
«I became texting my friends during the exact same time like in a bunch talk similar to, ‘I’m not sure what are you doing,'» she stated.
But exactly what started as being a storybook love changed into a real-life nightmare, Fjellhoy said – one which delivered her into debt and fearing on her behalf security. It is a tale that is cautionary the potential risks of internet dating.
«I hate him, he is therefore terrible,» she stated. «we am simply sick and tired of crying about that you realize? It is simply therefore painful. I simply hate myself that i did so this.»
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Leviev was created Shimon Hayut, a 28-year-old convicted con-man that is israeli served 3 years in Finnish jail for defrauding a few women in purchase to invest in their luxurious life style of personal jets and quick vehicles, which Fjellhoy said he liked to demonstrate down.
Fjellhoy said Hayut defrauded her away from significantly more than $200,000, finding by herself lulled in to a sense that is false of by their grand intimate gestures and flowery declarations of love. She stated she dropped victim to «confidence fraudulence.»
In June, Hayut had been arrested in Greece for making use of a false passport adhering to a joint procedure between Interpol and police that is israeli.
Away from court Hayut told reporters from VG, a Norwegian socket that first broke the tale, «I is certainly going returning to Israel, which is my house nation, and I also will face what exactly is waiting for me personally here and that is it, and we’ll sort every thing down. Whatever issues that individuals have actually, we are going to sort it call at court.»
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 national country before he had been set to face test.
In line with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, internet-facilitated love frauds, also called self- self- confidence fraudulence, may be the no. 1 sort of consumer fraudulence when you look at the U.S. across the world, victims of self- confidence fraudulence lose vast amounts of bucks every year, in line with the FBI.
Fjellhoy, whom shared her tale with “Nightline” early in the day this current year, stated her relationship with Hayut started away innocently sufficient.
«this is the time that is first we felt like, ‘Oh my god i like him. Plus it appears he actually likes me personally right back too,'» She stated. «He’s texting in which he’s calling in which he generally seems to genuinely wish to get acquainted with me, and I also think personally i think a bit for that.»
Fjellhoy said Hayut informed her that their work as a diamond dealer, employed by a business called LLD Diamonds, kept him traveling constantly, so that they dated cross country. She stated they delivered one another love notes over text, in movie declarations and sound tracks.
She stated he arrived to see her in London when he could, but most of the time, she stated he travelled her to where he had been. She said he’d constantly allude to a feature of risk in the work that kept him away, constantly on a jet that is private. At one point, Fjellhoy said he shared with her he could not return to London as a result of threats he had been getting, «but he could easily get me personally to where he had been.»
She stated Hayut reported become under constant risk from unknown nefarious enemies. She said he shared with her it absolutely was a risk of employed in the diamond company.
Fjellhoy said Hayut surrounded himself with individuals who aided perpetuate the misconception, even going as far as to send photos of himself along with his bodyguard into the medical center when they were allegedly «attacked.»
Based on Fjellhoy, it absolutely was not a long time before Hayut made a large ask, begging her to increase her personal credit line to him making sure that any seats, resort hotels and dinners could be scheduled under her title and their expected «enemies,» as she stated he called them, is tossed down their path.
«One associated with significant reasons why he required it absolutely was security… he required my title as being a address, he said,» Fjellhoy told «Nightline.» «I’m sure it seems crazy. but why would he have this giant guy with him if he did not require the protection?»
Fjellhoy said she relented because Hayut promised to pay her straight back, but funding their jet-set lifestyle ended up being costing her. As well as the cash she was being guaranteed by him was not to arrive.
«My angel My love i recently talked to your bank and additionally they said that the transfer of Amex will undoubtedly be here on thousand percent,» read one text message Hayut sent her monday.
«the total amount which he should be in a position to simply function for a week is merely a great deal,» Fjellhoy stated. «It is never ever just a couple of thousand, for us normal individuals who will be a lot of cash, but also for him it is not a ton of money.»
She stated he informed her he required huge amounts of cash he needed to book flights and hotels for because he had «an entire team. Fjellhoy said she assumed, as a result of their fancy clothing and life style, he’d money and would spend her straight back.
«You did not also think because you were so sure that this guy and the people that you had met was part of the LLD Diamonds and that the money existed,» she said that it was a problem when you were taking up the loans. «as he stated, ‘Everything’s likely to be fine following this ‘ and then it didn’t week. Therefore just ‘one more week’ and then ‘one more week.’ Therefore in the end you very nearly you did not also recognize just exactly just how much money you really owed.»
And fundamentally, Fjelljoy stated, she was at love with him.
«that is the most difficult section of it … whenever we understood which he was not who he said he had been,» she said. «That the individual that we knew and adored, he previously just done something within the many wicked means. that we thought»