A man with multiple aliases allegedly used the storied Astor family name to swindle a Mexican billionaire out of approximately $450 million through a fraudulent stock-backed loan scheme, according to a newly unsealed U.S. indictment and related court documents.
Indictment Details
Vladimir Sklarov, 63, also known as Gregory Mitchell and Mark Simon Bentley, established a sham company called Astor Asset Group, which prosecutors say falsely claimed to be a legitimate loan provider connected to the Astor family. The Astors, a prominent New York family, included John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest Americans in the mid-19th century.
The indictment, unsealed on Monday, does not name the victim, but court records in English litigation identify him as Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a Mexican magnate in television, retail, and banking. Salinas confirmed the fraud in a Wall Street Journal interview last year, stating, “I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?”
Arrest and Charges
Sklarov was arrested on Saturday in Chicago on charges from a federal grand jury in New York City. A detention hearing is set for Friday in federal court in Chicago. A public defender representing Sklarov did not respond to requests for comment.
“As alleged, Vladimir Sklarov represented his company to be affiliated with, and have the financial backing of the famed New York Astor family in order to burnish his brand,” said Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “That was a complete lie. Sklarov used false prestige to gain control of hundreds of millions of dollars in stock and then liquidated those shares for his own benefit.”
The Scheme
In 2021, Salinas sought a $100 million loan secured by shares of a company he owned. Sklarov, using the alias Gregory Mitchell and claiming to be Astor’s managing director, along with unnamed co-conspirators (including one using the alias Thomas Mellon, another wealthy American family name), convinced Salinas that Astor could provide the loan.
The conspirators falsely told Salinas that Astor was founded with John Jacob Astor’s wealth and had high-profile clients like universities and investment funds. Under a deal signed around July 2021, Sklarov agreed to lend at least $115 million, claiming the funds came from the Astor family. Salinas secured the loan with company shares worth at least $450 million, which were supposed to be held but not sold.
Instead, Sklarov sold the shares, used part of the proceeds to fund the loan, and kept the remaining hundreds of millions for himself and other conspirators. Salinas only learned the shares were liquidated in July 2024. A day later, he received a letter from Astor falsely claiming he had defaulted on the loan. A month earlier, Astor had wrongly informed him of the right to sell the shares.
Authorities list Sklarov’s hometown as Athens, Greece. The Wall Street Journal reports he is a Ukrainian-born American with a prior fraud conviction.
