Sklarov Charged in $450M Fraud on Salinas Pliego

Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Vladimir Sklarov, a 63-year-old man with multiple aliases, with defrauding Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego out of approximately $450 million in a fraudulent stock-backed loan scheme involving a sham company falsely tied to the historic Astor family. Sklarov, also known as Gregory Mitchell and Mark Simon Bentley, was arrested Saturday in Chicago on the indictment unsealed Monday by a federal grand jury in New York City.

According to the indictment, Sklarov operated Astor Asset Group, which he presented as a legitimate lender backed by the wealth of the 19th-century New York Astor family, including John Jacob Astor, one of America's richest men at the time. Prosecutors allege Sklarov and unnamed co-conspirators, including one using the alias Thomas Mellon, convinced Salinas in 2021 that the firm could provide a loan secured by shares in one of his companies.

Salinas, a magnate in television, retail and banking, sought about $100 million and pledged shares valued at least at $450 million as collateral under a deal signed around July 2021. The agreement called for Astor to lend at least $115 million, purportedly from Astor...