Mexico's third richest man and founder of Grupo Salinas, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, recently disclosed to The Wall Street Journal that he was defrauded of $5.5 billion in a transnational high-end financial scam, shrinking his personal wealth by nearly a quarter and evaporating about $4 billion in market value for the group overnight. The entire scheme was meticulously disguised, even involving fake nobility, offshore companies, and a transnational money laundering network, making it a top-tier financial "scam of the century."
The incident dates back to 2021. At that time, Salinas wanted to raise funds for his Bitcoin investment plan and decided to use the stocks of Grupo Elektra as collateral to seek a low-interest loan. Through the introduction of a Swiss financial advisor, he met a financial institution called "Astor Capital Fund." The party claimed to be descendants of the 19th-century American Astor family, offering loans at an annual interest rate as low as 1.15%, and provided documents with noble lion emblems, a luxurious official website, and exquisite promotional videos, creating a highly credible high-end financial image.
However, all this was just a well-packaged scam. The so-called "Thomas Astor Mellon" was actually Alexei Skachkov, a Georgian with a criminal record; the mastermind behind him was Vladimir Sklarov, a Ukrainian-American who was notorious in the 1990s for being involved in an $18 million Medicare fraud case and had been active in multiple countries for many years, participating in high-value frauds under multiple identities.
After the loan transaction was completed, Salinas did not realize the trap. The fraud gang quietly took control of the mortgaged Elektra stocks and massively sold them off in July 2024, causing the stock price to plummet by 71%, resulting in an instant evaporation of about $4 billion in market value for Grupo Salinas. Salinas personally suffered a heavy loss, estimated at $5.5 billion. He helplessly stated, "I feel like a fool."
Subsequent investigations found that the fraud gang had transferred most of the stolen money to high-end assets in multiple countries, including a top-floor apartment in New York worth $6.45 million, a castle in France worth $6 million, a villa on a Greek island, and a luxurious yacht. They also operated through multiple shell companies, such as "Cornelius Vanderbilt Capital Management," exploiting international regulatory loopholes to launder money, with the total case amounting to $750 million.
Currently, Salinas has successfully applied in a London court to freeze about $400 million of related assets and continues to track the remaining stolen funds. According to clues, some of the funds were channeled into the offshore banking system through a New York lawyer's account. Meanwhile, the fraud mastermind Sklarov is still living a lavish life in Greece, denying all allegations when facing the media, arguing, "The borrower was fully aware that the stocks could be transferred to a third party."
This case has caused a shock in the global financial community and once again revealed the concealment and precision of modern high-end financial fraud. The criminal gang, leveraging noble status, low-interest loans, simulated materials, and an international financial network, specifically targeted billionaires and large corporations, not only causing heavy losses to the victims but also exposing many loopholes in the global financial regulatory system.
The Salinas incident serves as a warning: even battle-hardened billionaires can become prey when facing highly disguised financial scams.
