Just call this an "Unforgettable" meeting.
Days after Netflix released The Tinder Swindler—a true crime documentary about Simon Leviev, an Israeli man who allegedly conned thousands of dollars from women he met on Tinder—French Montana revealed that he had unknowingly once crossed paths with the alleged fraudster and shared a throwback selfie of their encounter. In a photo posted to his Instagram Story on Jan. 6, the 37-year-old rapper wrote alongside a laughing emoji, "I can't believe I met the swindler."
The image showed French and the alleged con man, born Shimon Hayut, posing together on what appeared to be a plane. Wearing headphones, the "Pop That" artist can be seen flashing a peace sign next to Simon.
In The Tindler Swindler, multiple women alleged that they were scammed by Simon after he purported himself to be the son of Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev. They claimed that Simon lured them into a romantic relationship with lavish dates before asking for money so he could escape from so-called enemies in the cut-throat diamond industry. Interpol and Israeli police say they believe Simon, who was then a wanted man in several countries, would use the money to pay for dates with the next victim in his scam.
The documentary featured interviews from three of Simon's alleged victims: Pernilla Sjöholm, Ayleen Charlotte and Cecilie Schrøder Fjellhøy, who went public with her experiences in a 2019 story for Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
While traveling with a fake passport, Simon was arrested on June 28, 2019, in Greece after one of his longtime girlfriends read the article and tipped off Interpol and the Israeli police off to his location. He was extradited back to Israel.
Later that same year, he was sentenced to 15 months in an Israeli prison for fraud, unrelated to the allegations about his activities on Tinder, and was "ordered to pay compensation of more than $43,000," according to The Washington Post. Though he was released five months into his sentence, per The Times of Israel.
For his part, Simon has denied defrauding the women and has never been charged with any crimes connected to their relationship. However, he has been banned from ever using Tinder again.
On Jan. 5, spokesperson for the dating app told E! News in a statement, "We banned Simon Leviev and any of his known aliases as soon as the story of his actions became public in 2019. He is permanently banned from Tinder. In the lead up to the release of the documentary, we conducted additional internal investigations and can confirm Simon Leviev is not active on Tinder under any of his known aliases."