The Magistrate's Court in Tel Aviv approved a plea bargain deal between prosecutors and the defendant in the "Tinder Swindler" case, Shimon Hayut, paving the way for a 15-month prison sentence.
Hayut was extradited from Greece to Israel after fleeing in 2017, was accused of fraud after he bilked women from Finland, Norway, and Sweden, defrauding them to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Posing as the son of Russian-Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, Hayut claimed that he needed short-term loans from the women, using the money in a Ponzi-scheme-like arrangement, lavishing new victims with gifts and even dinners on private jets, which were paid for with money swindled from earlier victims.
Along with the 15-month sentence, Hayut will be required to pay 150,000 shekels to his victims, as well as a 20,000-shekel fine.