Shimon Levinson (Hebrew: שמעון לוינזון; born 31 January 1933)[citation needed] was a senior Israeli intelligence officer who was arrested for spying for the Soviet Union in 1991.

He eventually left the IDF out of frustration for not being promoted any further, and for a year, served as CEO of the Government Coins and Medals Corporation, but was forced into resignation after he filed a false complaint on corruption and mismanagement.

After retiring from the IDF, Levinson exploited his connections with senior UN officials and arranged for himself to be posted to Thailand as head of a UN agency fighting the drug trade in East Asia, a job with a high salary.

He served until June 1983, and near the end of his UN service in Thailand, he ran into financial troubles after repeated failed attempts to start his own businesses.

In April 1983, Levinson entered the Soviet embassy in Bangkok and offered to spy for the KGB, hoping to earn enough money to bail him out of his financial problems.

He was trained in the art of coded messages, radio communications, and secret rendezvous, and told what kind of information the KGB was interested in.

During his trial, some of his friends from the military and security services, including Ariel Sharon and Rafi Eitan, testified on his behalf.

While he was imprisoned, his wife left him, his friends and colleagues dissociated themselves from him, and he was expelled from various organizations that he had been a part of, including the IDF Veterans Association.

Following his release, he was subjected to a stay of exit order that prevented him from leaving Israel until the end of his original sentence in 2003.