A Mexican billionaire was tricked into lending $400 million to a gaggle of con artists — certainly one of whom handed himself off as a descendant of the nineteenth century fur dealer John Jacob Astor.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the proprietor of the telecommunications conglomerate Grupo Salinas, instructed the Wall Avenue Journal that he thought he had discovered the right lending associate when he wanted to finance a big Bitcoin funding in 2021.
As an alternative, he was duped right into a “loan-to-own” scheme that worn out out practically 1 / 4 of his internet value.
“I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?” Salinas Pliego, 69, instructed the Journal.
Salinas Pliego, whose internet value approached $16 billion on the peak of his wealth, had pledged shares in his firm, Grupo Elektra, as collateral within the fraudulent mortgage scheme.
Grupo Electro shares plunged 71% in a single day in July 2024 after investor confidence was rattled by information that his firm fell sufferer to fraud.
The collapse wiped $5.5 billion from his fortune, a part of a broader $4 billion drop in Elektra’s market worth triggered by the systematic sale of his shares underneath the “loan-to-own” association allegedly orchestrated by Ukrainian-born American fraudster Vladimir Sklarov.
Salinas Pliego’s journey into this monetary nightmare started when he sought to broaden his cryptocurrency holdings by borrowing $400 million towards his stake in Grupo Elektra, the retail and banking empire his father established in 1950.
Via a Swiss monetary adviser, he linked with Astor Capital Fund, which claimed prestigious lineage to the legendary New York household that after produced America’s richest man.
Salinas Pliego’s inventory collateral value over $400 million had vanished, offered off by Sklarov, who had masqueraded as “Gregory Mitchell” whereas his confederate posed as an Astor household descendant, in response to the Journal.
Property data point out that as a part of the alleged scheme, Sklarov’s lawyer and longtime affiliate seems to have covertly funneled Salinas’s cash right into a sequence of high-end actual property purchases throughout america and Europe.
The acquisitions included a $6.45 million penthouse in New York overlooking Central Park, a $2.67 million mansion in Virginia bought underneath the lawyer’s title and a $6 million château in France registered to Sklarov’s spouse, in response to the information web site Forex.
The portfolio was rounded out by two villas positioned within the prosperous Greek suburbs of Marousi and Ekali.
The operation appeared official from each angle. Throughout video conferences, a person figuring out himself as Thomas Astor Mellon joined calls from a yacht, talking with an genuine American accent and presenting himself as each the corporate’s chief government and a descendant of the well-known Astor lineage.
The agency’s supplies referenced the illustrious historical past of German-born fur dealer John Jacob Astor, who died in 1848 as America’s wealthiest particular person and whose household dominated Gilded Age society.
Astor Capital’s skilled presentation included engaging mortgage phrases at simply 1.15% curiosity and documentation bearing the official seal of a regal lion.
The corporate even maintained a refined web site that includes a promotional video displaying professionals getting into branded workplaces, full with imagery of a lion statue and narration about constructing on ideas established by John Jacob Astor’s monetary empire.
The truth behind this facade proved much more sinister. Investigators later revealed that “Thomas Astor Mellon” was really Alexey Skachkov, a resident of the previous Soviet republic of Georgia with a felony historical past together with prescription forgery and jewellery theft.
The first architect of the scheme, nevertheless, was Sklarov, a Ukrainian-born fraudster who had operated underneath quite a few aliases together with “Mark Simon Bentley” along with his Mitchell persona.
Sklarov’s felony background stretched again a long time, together with jail time for masterminding an $18 million Medicare fraud within the Nineties involving firms billing for uncovered surgical dressings.
After serving his sentence, he had constructed a considerable Midwest actual property portfolio that finally collapsed amid litigation and mortgage defaults, resulting in his divorce and a determined commercial in Crain’s Detroit Enterprise in search of new alternatives.
The fraudster had reinvented himself a number of occasions, legally altering his title from Vladimir to Val in 2006 to keep away from what he claimed was discrimination, and later adopting the Bentley moniker as a result of he “liked the automobile.”
Courtroom data present he established operations throughout a number of jurisdictions, creating same-name firms in varied nations and requiring dispute arbitration in obscure monetary facilities like Jamaica and Nevis.
Warning indicators emerged steadily. Salinas Pliego’s monetary lieutenant, Eduardo González Salceda Sánchez, first seen uncommon buying and selling exercise in Elektra shares throughout fall 2021, suspicious as a result of the inventory usually skilled minimal buying and selling quantity.
Regardless of these issues, the billionaire’s staff maintained religion of their lending associate, significantly after visiting what seemed to be official Astor workplaces in New York Metropolis, full with branded supplies and an expert receptionist.
The scheme’s collapse accelerated when Salceda Sánchez requested unbiased verification that the pledged shares remained in Salinas Pliego’s custody account.
Quite than offering proof, Astor Capital claimed the inquiry constituted forbidden interference and asserted unrestricted rights over the collateral.
When the London dealer concerned in arranging the deal questioned whether or not Astor was short-selling the inventory, “Mitchell” responded dismissively that borrowing shares represented regular market operations, in response to the Journal.
Salinas Pliego’s try to prepay the mortgage in July 2024 triggered the ultimate section of the fraud.
Three weeks later, Astor Capital issued a default discover citing eleven violations, together with the verification request, allegedly late curiosity funds and a Mexican authorities investigation into a few of Salinas Pliego’s firms.
Authorized filings cited by the Journal reveal that Salinas Pliego represented only one sufferer in a a lot bigger operation.
Sklarov allegedly managed roughly three-quarters of a billion {dollars} value of inventory from a number of debtors throughout america, United Kingdom and Asia over a number of years.
His victims included different rich executives who fell for comparable schemes involving firms with prestigious names like Cornelius Vanderbilt Capital Administration, Shearson Lehman and Bentley Rothschild.
The fraud exploited a official however loosely regulated nook of finance often known as securities-based lending, the place rich people can entry money with out promoting their inventory holdings.
Whereas main Swiss and American banks dominate this market, estimated by Deloitte at $4.3 trillion globally, alternatives exist for much less scrupulous operators to take advantage of debtors in search of different funding sources.
Salinas Pliego’s authorized staff has launched an aggressive restoration marketing campaign, acquiring a courtroom order freezing $400 million in London business courtroom and making use of for entry to US financial institution data to hint proceeds from the share gross sales.
Their investigation uncovered the complicated cash flows underlying the scheme, together with practically $300 million transferring by accounts managed by Sklarov’s New York lawyer earlier than returning to offshore entities.
The fraudster, now dwelling in Greece together with his household and reportedly proudly owning a number of properties plus a yacht just lately renamed “Enchantment,” continues to disclaim wrongdoing.
In his protection, Sklarov instructed the Journal that he operates within the high-risk lending market and maintains that debtors understood their inventory may very well be lent to different events.
He argues that Astor Capital solely promised to not promote shares instantly on public exchanges, leaving room for transfers to 3rd events who would possibly then execute gross sales.
Regardless of his huge wealth, Salinas Pliego expressed real embarrassment about falling sufferer to the scheme.
“On the one hand it makes me look like an absolute idiot,” Salinas Pliego instructed the Journal when requested about his his authorized marketing campaign to claw again the cash.
“On the other hand I feel like something needs to be done.”
