Who is Pernilla Sjoholm?
ON her quest to find love, Pernilla Sjoholm lost thousands after swiping right on Simon Leviev.
Now she's speaking out about her ordeal as one of the stars on Netflix's new true crime documentary The Tinder Swindler.
Who is Pernilla Sjoholm?
While searching for love, Pernilla Sjoholm became involved with a conman named Simon Leviev (real name Shimon Hayut).
Simon allegedly scammed a series of women under his alias and would use the money he got from other women to go on high-end dates including private-jet rides and luxury hotel stays.
He is accused of using this as a tactic to gain their trust before asking them for large sums with the promise of paying them back.
Swedish business owner Pernilla had just split from her fiance when she fell for the fraudster.
She had no idea about Simon's lies until she was contacted by media.
He later threatened her, saying: "If you double cross me, you will pay for the rest of your life."
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She responded: "I am paying for it."
Her story, as well as the experiences of Cecilie Fjellhoy,and Ayleen Charlotte, are shared in the 2022 Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler.
As of February of 2022, Hayut has not been charged with defrauding Fjellhoy, Sjoholm, or Charlotte.
Director Felicity Morris said to : "I think that it is incredibly hard for the women."
What happened between Pernilla Sjoholm and Simon Leviev?
Pernilla swiped right on conman Simon in March 2018 while she was living in Sweden.
At the same time, he was dating Fjellhøy who had also met him on the dating app in January 2018.
Simon had told the women he was the son of diamond tycoon Lev Leviev.
She parted with significant amounts of cash, and only found out when she was contacted by journalists investigating him.
How much did Pernilla Sjoholm lose?
Leviev, who legally changed his name from Shimon Hayut to solidify his ruse as the son of the "King of Diamonds", seduced women on Tinder and conned them out of money.
Sjoholm says she gave Simon at least $45,000 and it is believed Fjellhoy lost more than $200,000.
He told them his enemies had frozen him out of his bank accounts or attacked his bodyguard, Piotr, asking the women to use their savings to help him or take out loans to support him.
It's estimated that he conned all his victims out of around £7.4million in total.
What has Pernilla Sjoholm said on the Tinder Swindler?
Simon tricked women across Europe between 2017 and 2019.
The documentary shows how Pernilla was involved in a car chase as she was used as bait in a failed attempt to help German police arrest Simon.
She told : "I was 100 per cent sure I was going to die, they were going to put me in a ditch somewhere.
"I was so scared, I was just thinking in my head: 'You need to do the biggest act you've done in your entire life, otherwise I'm never going to see my friends and family again'."
The women have since launched a GoFundMe to try and recover some of the money they lost.
Sympathetic watchers of the show have so far donated nearly £17,000 of the £600,000 target, just 24 hours after it was created.
The description reads: "You’re probably here because you’ve heard about our story, and we appreciate you taking the time to search and find this page.
“The past few days have been a whirlwind, and we three (Ayleen, Pernilla and Cecilie) have been completely shocked and floored by the flood of compassion and support from everyone.
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"The sheer love is more than we ever expected, and we appreciate you all so much," it continued.
Tinder has said that Leviev is not on their app under any known alias.