Man charged in US with stealing $450 million from Mexican billionaire in loan scheme
A man with multiple aliases used the name of the famous Astor family to defraud a Mexican billionaire of nearly $450 million in a fake stock-backed loan scheme, according to a newly unsealed U.S. indictment and other court records.
Federal prosecutors said Vladimir Sklarov, 63, also known as Gregory Mitchell and Mark Simon Bentley, created Astor Asset Group, a fake company that purported to be a legitimate and experienced lender with ties to the Astors. The storied New York family included John Jacob Astor, one of the richest men in America in the mid-19th century.
Although the victim was not named in the indictment announced Monday, court records in the case in England indicate he was the victim. Ricardo Salinas PliegoMexican TV, retail and banking magnate. Salinas also confirmed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year that he was defrauded by Astor Asset Group.
“I feel like such a fool. How could I fall for this?” Salinas Pliego told the newspaper.
Prosecutors said Sklarov was arrested in Chicago on Saturday on an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in New York City. A detention hearing is scheduled for Friday in federal court in Chicago, court records show.
A public defender in Chicago representing Sklarov did not immediately respond to phone and email messages Tuesday.
“As alleged, Vladimir Sklarov represented his company, which is affiliated with and has financial support from the famous New York Astor family, in order to polish its brand,” Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “This was a complete lie. Sklarov used false prestige to gain control of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of stock and then liquidate those shares for his own benefit.”
According to the indictment, Salinas was seeking a $100 million loan in 2021 that he planned to secure with shares of a company he owned. Prosecutors said Sklarov, who used the name Gregory Mitchell and claimed to be Astor’s “chief executive officer,” and other unnamed co-conspirators convinced Salinas that Astor was willing and able to provide the loan. Other conspirators included a man using the pseudonym Thomas Mellon, whose surname also belonged to a prominent and wealthy American family.
Prosecutors said Sklarov and other co-conspirators told Salinas that Astor was actually founded from the fortune of John Jacob Astor and that the company had high-profile clients including universities and investment funds.
The indictment states that under an agreement signed around July 2021, Sklarov agreed to loan Salinas at least $115 million, claiming the money would come from the Astor family. Salinas secured the loan with at least $450 million worth of company stock that was supposed to be held but not sold.
Federal prosecutors said Sklarov then sold his company shares, used some of the proceeds to finance the loan to Salinas, and kept the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and other co-conspirators.
The indictment states that Salinas did not learn about the liquidation of the company’s shares until July 2024. A day later, Salinas received a letter from Astor falsely claiming that Salinas was in default on the loan, according to the document. A month ago, Astor gave Salinas false information that he had the right to sell the shares, prosecutors said.
Authorities listed Slarov’s hometown as Athens, Greece. The Wall Street Journal reported that Slarov is a Ukrainian-born American who has been convicted of fraud in the past.
