TINDER Swindler Shimon Hayut today speaks for the first time after his dramatic arrest last month saying he fears he has been ‘set up’, the Mail can reveal.
Talking from his Georgian prison cell, the Israeli sweetheart scammer told local celebrity lawyer Mariam Kublashvili that while he is ‘no angel’ he has ‘no recollection’ of the crimes he is accused of.
He has appointed Ms Kublashivili who compares Hayut to ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort, the disgraced stockbroker played by Leonardo di Caprio in the hit film.
She said like Belfort, who is now a motivational speaker, Hayut has ‘turned over a new leaf’.
Hayut, who turned 35 behind bars last month, was arrested landing at Batumi Airport on September 14 under an Interpol red notice for alleged fraud committed in Germany.
He is held in Kutaisi Penitentiary Establishment No 2 awaiting extradition proceedings which could take months. If subsequently convicted he faces up to 10 years behind bars in Germany.
‘I have absolutely no recollection of any of this,’ Hayut insisted, speaking to the Mail through Ms Kublashvili.
‘I’m not claiming to be an angel, but I genuinely don’t remember anything of the sort — especially given how little evidence has been presented.
‘Under the circumstances, I believe I’m either being set up or there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.’
Hayut was wanted for a string of alleged fraud and theft cases with multiple aliases flagged with authorities.
He was made notorious by a 2022 Netflix documentary claiming he conned women he met on Tinder out of an estimated £7.4million by posing as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul.
Hayut was last caught entering Greece on a fake passport in 2019 and extradited to Israel where he served just five months of a 15-month prison sentence.
Now his legal team question why an Interpol notice was triggered when he entered Georgia without the Germans first going to authorities in his homeland.
Hayut’s Israeli lawyer Sharon Nahari said: ‘There are also serious concerns regarding the statute of limitations. He has always appeared for, and cooperated with, investigations across Europe.
‘To arrest him in a third country, rather than addressing the matter openly through Israel, is unfair and unacceptable.’
Mr Nahari also described the German case as ‘disproportionate’ and ‘based on weak evidence’.Hayut’s newly appointed legal team say they have identified ‘significant new arguments’ against the German case.
Ms Kublashvili, who is renowned in Georgia for winning tough cases, said: ‘What I can say at this stage is that we will certainly be contesting his extradition to Germany.’
She said she fears his chances of getting a fair trial due to the ‘extremely biased and skewed’ narrative.
‘We need to remember that he is a very different person now,’ she said.
‘Since 2022, he has embarked on a new, entirely legal career and has even published a memoir.
‘In some ways, his story reminds me of Jordan Belfort’s — a man who turned over a new leaf and went on to become a highly sought-after motivational speaker.
‘There are many other such examples. Shimon hopes to follow a similar path.’
While Ms Kublashvili is fighting his extradition she first wants to move him from his prison in Georgia’s second city to one in the capital, Tbilisi.
She said: ‘My client is being held in conditions that lack even the most basic standards of hygiene.
‘Since none of the staff speak English, he can’t make himself understood.
‘I will do my utmost to have him transferred to Tbilisi, where the conditions are somewhat better.
‘He was wearing only a T-shirt and complained of being cold — he has no warm clothes. He asked me for books, including his memoir, which he intends to revise while in detention.’
Ms Kublashvili is a former model who once appeared on ‘The Stars Are Dancing’ – Georgia’s version of Strictly Come Dancing.
She fought to prevent speedboat killer Shepherd from extradition in 2019 after he was detained in Georgia over the killing of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown during a speedboat date on the Thames.
He was eventually extradited three months later after Shepherd agreed provided his safety was taken into consideration.
Ms Kublashvili’s most famous case is defending Temirlan Machalikashvili’s family, a teenager shot dead in his bed by Georgian law enforcement who claimed he was linked to ISIS.
Ms Kublashvili, who runs her own law firm, has spoken movingly about losing her father at the age of five and had a tough life raised by strict mountain traditions.
