According to reports from Associated Press, Vladimir Sklarov, 63, also known as Gregory Mitchell and Mark Simon Bentley, has been charged in the United States for allegedly stealing approximately $450 million from Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego through a bogus stock-backed loan scheme. The scheme involved creating a sham company called Astor Asset Group, which falsely claimed to be connected to the famed Astor family and have financial backing from the wealthy New York family that included John Jacob Astor, one of America's wealthiest men in the mid-19th century. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Sklarov had previously spent time in prison for an $18 million Medicare fraud scheme.
As reported by Associated Press, court records in litigation in England show that the victim was Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the Mexican TV, retail and banking magnate. Salinas confirmed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year that he was ripped off by Astor Asset Group, stating 'I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?' According to the indictment, in 2021, Salinas was seeking a $100 million loan that he intended to secure with shares of a company he owned. According to The Wall Street Journal, Salinas was looking to invest in bitcoin and had taken out three loans from banks he had been in contact with previously before dealing with a fourth lender who purported to be linked to the wealthy Astor family.
According to the indictment reported by Associated Press, Sklarov and other conspirators convinced Salinas that Astor was willing and able to provide the loan, with other conspirators including a man using the alias Thomas Mellon. Under a deal signed around July 2021, Sklarov agreed to lend Salinas at least $115 million, claiming the money would come from the Astor family. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Salinas eventually signed an agreement for a $115 million loan in exchange for $400 million worth of stock. Sklarov paid Salinas the $115 million by selling the stock without his knowledge and kept the remaining sum, while Salinas secured the loan with company shares worth at least $450 million that were supposed to be held but not sold.
As reported by Associated Press, Sklarov then sold the company shares, using some of the proceeds to fund the loan to Salinas and keeping the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and other conspirators. It wasn't until July 2024 that Salinas learned the company shares had been liquidated, receiving a letter from Astor falsely claiming he had defaulted on the loan. A month earlier, Astor had wrongly informed Salinas that it had the right to sell the shares. According to The Wall Street Journal, the billionaire didn't become wise to the scheme until three years later when his stock was liquidated while the man pretending to be Thomas Astor Mellon and Mitchell seemingly disappeared.
According to Associated Press, Sklarov was arrested in Chicago on Saturday on the indictment by a federal grand jury in New York City. A detention hearing is scheduled for Friday in federal court in Chicago. As reported by The Chicago Sun-Times, Sklarov was charged last week with defrauding Salinas Pliego out of more than $450 million. The indictment states that Sklarov must forfeit the money he made from liquidating the shares, or otherwise repay the amount stolen. On Tuesday, a spokesman for Salinas Pliego said, 'We welcome the recent action taken by U.S. authorities.' Sklarov denies fraud and claimed to The Wall Street Journal that he 'never said or alluded to the Astor family.'
