A person with a number of aliases used the identify of the famed Astor household to dupe a Mexican billionaire out of round $450 million in a bogus stock-backed mortgage scheme, in keeping with a newly unsealed US indictment and different court docket information.
Vladimir Sklarov, 63, also called Gregory Mitchell and Mark Simon Bentley, arrange a sham firm, Astor Asset Group, that presupposed to be a legit and skilled mortgage supplier that was linked to the Astors, federal prosecutors stated.
The storied New York household included John Jacob Astor, one of many wealthiest males in America within the mid-Nineteenth century.
Though the indictment unsealed on Monday doesn’t identify the sufferer, court docket information in litigation in England present it was Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the Mexican TV, retail and banking magnate.
Salinas additionally confirmed he was ripped off by Astor Asset Group in an interview with The Wall Avenue Journal final 12 months.
“I really feel like an absolute fool. How might I fall for this?” Salinas Pliego informed the newspaper.
Sklarov was arrested in Chicago on Saturday on the indictment by a federal grand jury in New York Metropolis, prosecutors stated. A detention listening to is scheduled for Friday in federal court docket in Chicago, in keeping with court docket information.
A public defender representing Sklarov in Chicago didn’t instantly return cellphone and e mail messages Tuesday.
“As alleged, Vladimir Sklarov represented his firm to be affiliated with, and have the monetary backing of the famed New York Astor household in an effort to burnish his model,” Jay Clayton, US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, stated in a press release.
“That was an entire lie. Sklarov used false status to realize management of a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} in inventory after which liquidated these shares for his personal profit.”
In 2021, Salinas was looking for a $100 million mortgage that he meant to safe with shares of an organization he owned, in keeping with the indictment.
Sklarov — utilizing the identify Gregory Mitchell and claiming he was “managing director” of Astor — and different, unnamed co-conspirators satisfied Salinas that Astor was keen and in a position to present the mortgage, prosecutors stated.
The opposite conspirators included a person who additionally used an alias, Thomas Mellon, whose final identify can also be that of a outstanding and rich American household.
Sklarov and different conspirators informed Salinas that Astor was initially established from the wealth of John Jacob Astor and that the corporate had high-profile shoppers together with universities and funding funds, prosecutors stated.
Underneath a deal signed round July 2021, Sklarov agreed to lend Salinas at the very least $115 million, claiming the cash would come from the Astor household, the indictment says.
Salinas secured the mortgage with firm shares value at the very least $450 million that have been imagined to be held however not offered.
Sklarov then offered the corporate shares, used among the proceeds to fund the mortgage to Salinas and stored the remaining a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} for himself and different conspirators, federal prosecutors stated.
It wasn’t till July 2024 that Salinas realized the corporate shares had been liquidated, the indictment says.
A day later, Salinas obtained a letter from Astor falsely claiming that Salinas had defaulted on the mortgage, in keeping with the doc. A month earlier, Astor wrongly knowledgeable Salinas that it had the best to promote the shares, prosecutors stated.
Authorities listed Sklarov’s hometown as Athens, Greece. The Wall Avenue Journal reported that Sklarov is a Ukrainian-born American who had been convicted of fraud previously.
