Mexican Billionaire Thought He Was Dealing With America's Oldest Money Dynasty — Then Lost $450M

Billionaires usually practice due diligence, especially when it comes to making huge investments. Ricardo Salinas Pliego thought he was doing just that, believing he was actually transacting with America's oldest money dynasty – the Astor family.

Unfortunately, it was not the case. It turns out that the Mexican billionaire got duped out of more than $450 million (£331 million) by a man who was initially identified as Gregory Mitchell. He passed himself off as a loan provider for the Astor Capital Fund. However, this name was actually an alias to cover his real identity – Vladimir Sklarov.

Sklarov, who also uses aliases such as Val Sklarov and Mark Simon Bentley, had already been involved in past fraud cases. That included an $18 million (£13.24 million) Medicare fraud case that forced him to spend time in prison.

Aside from that, the 63-year-old was also involved in a real estate case in the Midwest. That venture collapsed after the company drowned in legal issues.

How Sklarov Duped a Billionaire

The fraud case involving Salinas Pliego happened in 2021. At the time, the Mexican billionaire planned to invest in bitcoin since it was booming at the time.

However, the billionaire needed to raise millions to invest in the peer-to-peer digital currency and needed funds to do so. He approached several groups and one of them was the sham company of Sklarov.

To raise roughly $100 million to make the investment happen, Salinas Pliego used company shares to raise the needed funds, the New York Post reported. The Astor Capital Fund, where Sklarov passed himself off as the managing director, was willing and able to provide the loan.

In an effort to convince Salinas Pliego that they were legit, the 63-year-old fraudster issued controversial claims. That included alleging that the company was established from the wealth of John Jacob Astor, the richest man in the US during the Gilded Age.

Aside from that, he shared how the company had high-profile clients that included universities and investment funds.

Convinced, a deal was signed by the two parties in July 2021. Sklarov agreed to lend Salinas Pliego $115 million, alleging that the money would be coming from the Astor family. For his part, the Mexican mogul issued company shares worth at least $450 million (£331 million).

Part of the agreement was that the shares were to be held and not sold. However, Sklarov ended up selling them anyway, using part of the proceeds to fund the loan to Salinas Pliego. Sklarov kept the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and other conspirators.

Uncovering the Scam

According to prosecutors, it was in 2024 when Salinas Pliego was falsely informed by Astor that the company had the right to sell the shares. By July that year, the billionaire discovered that the company shares had already been sold.

A day after finding that out, the sham company informed the billionaire that he had defaulted on the loan. Sklarov and his cohorts went into hiding after the shares were liquidated and it was only then that Salinas Pliego figured out the scam.

'I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?' Salinas Pliego said to The Wall Street Journal.

Sklarov was arrested in Chicago on Saturday, 2 May, on the indictment of a federal grand jury in New York City. He is charged with defrauding Salinas Pliego out of more than $450 million (£331 million) and must forfeit the money he made from liquidating the shares or repay the amount stolen, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sklarov is scheduled for a detention hearing in federal court in Chicago on Friday, 8 May.