Leviev was born Shimon Yehuda Hayut (Hebrew: שמעון יהודה חיות) in 1990 in Ramat Elchanan, Bnei Brak, Israel.[1] At the age of 15 he moved to Brooklyn, New York in the US with his family's friends,[1] who later accused him of misusing their credit card.[8] In 2010 he attended a flight school.[1] According to interviews done by Felicity Morris, Leviev has been committing minor cons like cheque fraud since he was a teenager.[9] He later changed his legal name from Shimon Hayut to Simon Leviev, using the surname Leviev to pretend he was related to Lev Avnerovich Leviev, an Israeli businessman known as "The King of Diamonds".[10]