Could Simon Leviev and Anna Delvey be the new potential Bonnie and Clyde? 

If you haven’t watched The Tinder Swindler or Inventing Anna on Netflix, you are missing out! Warning, SPOILERS ahead.

Just A quick recap. The Tinder Swindler is a docuseries about a man, Shimon Hayut, better known by his alias, Simon Leviev, who conned many women into giving him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He achieved this by pretending he was the son of billionaire Lev Leviev of LLD Diamonds and that he needed money because his enemies were after him and could track him using his card. 

Inventing Anna is a miniseries based on the true story of Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, that swindled countless hotels, banks and elite people in New York City. She achieved this by pretending to be a German heiress with an inheritance, and the only reason she couldn’t pay was that her wire transfers were not going through because of “issues” with the bank. 

Eventually, both were caught. Simon was sentenced to 15 months in prison but got out after 5 months due to good behaviour. Anna was sentenced 4-12 years in prison. She got out in 3 years, also due to good behaviour. A match made in heaven already. But, if we go back to how exactly they both were able to con all these people, you will be ‘shipping them even more. They say opposites attract, but countless studies have proven the statement is false. 

Besides being at a similar age, both Simon and Anna were extremely clever in their approach. Not only did they talk the talk, but they also walked the walk. Simon wore luxury brands, drove expensive cars, flew in private planes, went to fancy restaurants, and always offered to pay. Anna did pretty much the same thing. So how did they get this money in the first place? Simon was supposedly using the massive sums of money given to him by one woman; to impress another woman, and Anna was using a 100k overdraft she got from the bank. Long story. 

Is looking good and playing the part enough to con people so well? For Anna, maybe because she was involved with the New York elite, who have proven quite strongly that all they care about is money and status. But, for the most part, no. They both had to do more. They had to deeply manipulate their victims.

As all good cons do, Simon and Anna manipulated their victims by setting up the illusion of a relationship, whether it be a friendly one or something more romantic. Simon manipulated women by appealing to their stereotypical desires to be loved, listened to and taken care of. And Anna manipulated her victims by appealing to the desire many people have to be accepted by someone important. She also used the concierges’ fear of rich people and her power to manipulate them into staying at the hotels even though she had outstanding payments.

Manipulating their victims was not a difficult task because they are both narcissists (DISCLAIMER: not diagnosing anyone) some characteristics of a narcissist include a grandiose sense of self, a constant need for praise and attention, a sense of entitlement, exploiting others with no remorse, a lack of empathy, the list goes on. They believe so strongly that they deserve what they are after, that it doesn’t matter how they got it.  They also have delusions of grandeur, which means they believe they have more power and money than they actually do. All of the above pretty much sums up Anna and Simon. 

Two strong personalities like this could struggle in a relationship, but we believe that the potential these two hold together, a minor difference like this, wouldn’t get in their way. Another pretty accurate description of these two would be Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism is a personality trait where one is cunning, manipulative and will do whatever is necessary to gain power.

It seems like Simon is still a con man even after the release of The Tinder Swindler, Anna, not. But even if she was, too many people know who they are now, so they probably wouldn’t be able to be the ultimate POWER couple. But hypothetically speaking, and if this was a couple of years ago, these two would be unstoppable.

Words by Fran Rattle