The dating industry’s lead trade group is urging Apple and Google to block a new dating app that the convicted fraudster known as the Tinder Swindler says he plans to launch to safeguard women from similar criminals.

Simon Leviev, soon to turn 36, who inspired a 2022 Netflix documentary by that alias after achieving notoriety for conning at least six women out of an estimated 7 million pounds, wants to name his app Safe Love.

Leviev’s criminality first became widely known after reports by Natalie Hansen and Kristoffer Kumar and others from the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang, assisted by ICIJ’s Israeli member Uri Blau.

The son of a rabbi, Simon Leviev wooed several Scandinavian women with glamorous trips, gifts and expensive meals, then shook them down by claiming to be in danger and needing cash to flee danger.

Each victim was used to fund the seduction of the next.

In 2019, Leviev was sentenced to jail in Israel for 15 months after being extradited from Greece and convicted of theft, fraud and forgery of documents. He served only five months.

Unconvinced by Leviev’s self-professed rehabilitation, The Online Dating and Discovery Association has written to Apple and Google calling on them to cancel the convicted fraudster’s planned app.

“In our view, a convicted fraudster having any involvement in our industry seriously undermines the work our sector is doing to tackle fraud,” ODDA chief Simon Newman told ICIJ in a statement.

“It can only have negative repercussions for platforms and users alike,” he said. “We believe it should not be allowed to happen, and that action is needed to prevent it.”

Newman called on Apple and Google to seriously consider the harmful impact that could occur if they were to host any dating app founded, operated or fronted by Leviev.

The U.S. government has long warned, in sweeping terms, that the Chinese tech giant Huawei is effectively an arm of the Chinese state that acts with impunity on the global stage, including allegedly violating U.S. sanctions. Over the last two weeks, U.S. prosecutors have begun to make that case, labeling Huawei a “criminal enterprise,” in what could be a lengthy trial in a New York federal court.

Huawei enacted “a far-reaching criminal scheme extending over twenty years,” according to Department of Justice prosecutor Taylor Stout. “Crime was an important business strategy.”

Nearly eight years after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed its indictment against Huawei, the company is facing 12 felony charges, including that it conspired to steal technologies from U.S. competitors and business partners. The federal government also alleges that Huawei lied to its Western banking partners about doing business in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. No individuals have been charged.

Huawei’s lawyers rejected the government’s characterization, with Brian Heberlig, one of at least a dozen attorneys working for the defense, arguing that the charges concerned “disconnected incidents.”

“It’s about competition, not conspiracy,” Heberlig said.

In December 2018, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver at the request of U.S. officials and charged with fraud. After a lengthy period of house arrest, Meng reached a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. authorities in 2021 in which she admitted to lying to HSBC and other banks about a Huawei subsidiary’s business in Iran. That admission will likely be introduced during the trial.

As reported in China Capital, ICIJ’s recent investigation into Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Huawei had leaned on its close relations with the state-owned bank to insulate itself from the fallout of Meng’s arrest. After the Justice Department unveiled its indictment, the company’s bankers at ICBC’s London branch facilitated a transfer of $1.3 billion in “emergency cash” from London to a branch in China without informing compliance staff.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-banking-icbc-oligarchs-sanctions-london/

OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/huawei-icbc-banking-us-court-beijing-london/

HUAWEI Chinese bank helped Huawei spirit $1B out of London days after US indictment of the tech giant Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/about-china-capital-investigation-icbc/

Asia-Pacific About the China Capital investigation Sep 14, 2026

Recommended reading OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026 HUAWEI Chinese bank helped Huawei spirit $1B out of London days after US indictment of the tech giant Sep 14, 2026 Asia-Pacific About the China Capital investigation Sep 14, 2026

British lawmakers today raised concerns about Chinese ownership of water utilities and key local infrastructure following ICIJ’s China Capital investigation into financing deals pursued by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by asset size.

Senior conservative peer Lord Blencathra, also known as David Maclean, questioned the government in British Parliament’s House of Lords after The Times, an ICIJ partner, reported that ICBC issued nearly $1.7 billion in loans and borrowing options to water and energy infrastructure companies in the United Kingdom in the years leading up to July 2024.

ICIJ found that the London units of ICBC, whose majority shareholder is the Chinese state, served as a financing hub for companies linked to sanctioned oligarchs, autocrats publicly accused of corruption and China’s political establishment.

“There are deep concerns that this poses a financial security risk, especially since ICBC has continued to accept business from Russian and Belarusian clients,” Maclean told members of the House of Lords.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-banking-icbc-oligarchs-sanctions-london/

OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/faqs-icbc-china-capital-bank/

FAQs Frequently asked questions about the China Capital investigation Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/zhang-hongli-icbc-executive-corruption-employee-misconduct/

CORRUPTION ICBC promoted corrupt executive, ignored employee misconduct as it pursued global expansion Sep 14, 2026

Recommended reading OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026 FAQs Frequently asked questions about the China Capital investigation Sep 14, 2026 CORRUPTION ICBC promoted corrupt executive, ignored employee misconduct as it pursued global expansion Sep 14, 2026