Latest news with #Ukrainian-born
NDTV
9 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
How Scammers Tricked Mexican Billionaire Out Of Rs 3,491 Crore: "I Feel Like An Absolute Idiot"
In 2021, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego was scammed by fraudsters posing as descendants of the prominent Astor family, resulting in a loss of approximately $400 million. According to New York Post, the scam involved a sophisticated "loan-to-own" scheme orchestrated by con artists, including Ukrainian-born American Vladimir Sklarov. The scammers falsely claimed their firm, Astor Capital Fund, was linked to the Gilded Age Astor family, known for their wealth and influence in New York society. Mr Pliego, owner of Grupo Salinas, recently talked to Wall Street Journal about the scam, that wiped nearly a quarter of his net worth. He said that he believed he had found a reliable partner to finance a large Bitcoin investment in 2021, however, he fell victim to a "loan-to-own" scheme. "I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?" Mr Pliego, 69, told the Journal. The billionaire's financial nightmare began when he sought to expand his cryptocurrency holdings by borrowing $400 million against his stake in Grupo Elektra, the retail and banking empire founded by his father in 1950. He was introduced to Astor Capital Fund by a Swiss financial adviser, which claimed ties to the esteemed New York family. The billionaire's team remained confident in their lending partner despite concerns, after visiting Astor's seemingly legitimate New York City offices. However, Salinas Pliego's stock collateral, worth over $400 million, was secretly sold off by Arkady Sklarov, who posed as "Gregory Mitchell," and his accomplice, who impersonated an Astor family descendant. The scheme unraveled when Salceda Sanchez requested proof that Salinas Pliego's shares remained in his custody account. Astor Capital refused, claiming the request was forbidden interference, and asserted control over the collateral. As the London broker questioned the short-selling of stock, "Mitchell" downplayed concerns. When Mr Pliego tried to prepay the loan in July 2024, Astor Capital issued a default notice, citing alleged violations, including late interest payments and a Mexican government investigation. Legal filings revealed that Salinas Pliego was just one victim in a larger operation. The fraudsters had set up a complex scheme, using multiple aliases and companies to deceive their victims. Property records reveal that Sklarov's associate covertly funneled Salinas Pliego's money into luxury real estate purchases across the US and Europe. The scammers used his money to acquire a portfolio of high-end properties, including a $6.45 million New York penthouse with Central Park views, a $2.67 million Virginia mansion, and a $6 million French château. They also purchased two villas in affluent Greek suburbs. To appear legitimate, the con artists created a professional website, polished promotional materials, and attractive loan terms. One impersonator, posing as Thomas Astor Mellon, participated in video conferences from a yacht, speaking with an American accent and claiming to be a descendant of John Jacob Astor. The mastermind behind the scheme was Val Sklarov, a Ukrainian-born fraudster with a decades-long history of crime. Sklarov had operated under multiple aliases and had served prison time for an $18 million Medicare fraud. He reinvented himself multiple times, changing his name and establishing companies across various jurisdictions.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Fraudsters scammed Mexican billionaire out of $400M by claiming they were descendants of Astor family: ‘I feel like an absolute idiot'
A Mexican billionaire was tricked into lending $400 million to a group of con artists — one of whom passed himself off as a descendant of the 19th century fur trader John Jacob Astor. Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the owner of the telecommunications conglomerate Grupo Salinas, told the Wall Street Journal that he thought he had found the perfect lending partner when he needed to finance a large Bitcoin investment in 2021. Instead, he was duped into a 'loan-to-own' scheme that wiped out out nearly a quarter of his net worth. Advertisement 7 A Ukrainian-born fraudster, Val Sklarov, duped a Mexican billionaire out of $400 million. 'I feel like an absolute idiot. How could I fall for this?' Salinas Pliego, 69, told the Journal. Salinas Pliego, whose net worth approached $16 billion at the peak of his wealth, had pledged shares in his company, Grupo Elektra, as collateral in the fraudulent loan scheme. Grupo Electro shares plunged 71% in a single day in July 2024 after investor confidence was rattled by news that his company fell victim to fraud. Advertisement The collapse wiped $5.5 billion from his fortune, part of a broader $4 billion drop in Elektra's market value triggered by the systematic sale of his shares under the 'loan-to-own' arrangement allegedly orchestrated by Ukrainian-born American fraudster Vladimir Sklarov. Salinas Pliego's journey into this financial nightmare began when he sought to expand his cryptocurrency holdings by borrowing $400 million against his stake in Grupo Elektra, the retail and banking empire his father established in 1950. Through a Swiss financial adviser, he connected with Astor Capital Fund, which claimed prestigious lineage to the legendary New York family that once produced America's richest man. Advertisement 7 Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who was once worth as much as $16 billion, lost a quarter of his wealth as a result of the scam. AP Salinas Pliego's stock collateral worth over $400 million had vanished, sold off by Sklarov, who had masqueraded as 'Gregory Mitchell' while his accomplice posed as an Astor family descendant, according to the Journal. Property records indicate that as part of the alleged scheme, Sklarov's lawyer and longtime associate appears to have covertly funneled Salinas's money into a series of high-end real estate purchases across the United States and Europe. The acquisitions included a $6.45 million penthouse in New York overlooking Central Park, a $2.67 million mansion in Virginia purchased under the lawyer's name and a $6 million château in France registered to Sklarov's wife, according to the news site Currency. Advertisement 7 An accomplice to the fraud passed himself off as a descendant of robber baron John Jacob Astor. © Bettmann/CORBIS The portfolio was rounded out by two villas located in the affluent Greek suburbs of Marousi and Ekali. The operation appeared legitimate from every angle. During video conferences, a man identifying himself as Thomas Astor Mellon joined calls from a yacht, speaking with an authentic American accent and presenting himself as both the company's chief executive and a descendant of the famous Astor lineage. The firm's materials referenced the illustrious history of German-born fur trader John Jacob Astor, who died in 1848 as America's wealthiest individual and whose family dominated Gilded Age society. Astor Capital's professional presentation included attractive loan terms at just 1.15% interest and documentation bearing the official seal of a regal lion. The company even maintained a polished website featuring a promotional video showing professionals entering branded offices, complete with imagery of a lion statue and narration about building on principles established by John Jacob Astor's financial empire. 7 Sklarov, who served time in prison in the US, orchestrated a 'loan-to-own' scheme. The reality behind this facade proved far more sinister. Investigators later revealed that 'Thomas Astor Mellon' was actually Alexey Skachkov, a resident of the former Soviet republic of Georgia with a criminal history including prescription forgery and jewelry theft. Advertisement The primary architect of the scheme, however, was Sklarov, a Ukrainian-born fraudster who had operated under numerous aliases including 'Mark Simon Bentley' in addition to his Mitchell persona. Sklarov's criminal background stretched back decades, including prison time for masterminding an $18 million Medicare fraud in the 1990s involving companies billing for uncovered surgical dressings. After serving his sentence, he had built a substantial Midwest real estate portfolio that eventually collapsed amid litigation and loan defaults, leading to his divorce and a desperate advertisement in Crain's Detroit Business seeking new opportunities. The fraudster had reinvented himself multiple times, legally changing his name from Vladimir to Val in 2006 to avoid what he claimed was discrimination, and later adopting the Bentley moniker because he 'liked the automobile.' Advertisement Court records show he established operations across multiple jurisdictions, creating same-name companies in various countries and requiring dispute arbitration in obscure financial centers like Jamaica and Nevis. Warning signals emerged gradually. Salinas Pliego's financial lieutenant, Eduardo González Salceda Sánchez, first noticed unusual trading activity in Elektra shares during fall 2021, suspicious because the stock typically experienced minimal trading volume. 7 The alleged scheme involved setting up a fake office and a web site for 'Astor Asset Management.' Despite these concerns, the billionaire's team maintained faith in their lending partner, particularly after visiting what appeared to be legitimate Astor offices in New York City, complete with branded materials and a professional receptionist. Advertisement The scheme's collapse accelerated when Salceda Sánchez requested independent verification that the pledged shares remained in Salinas Pliego's custody account. Rather than providing proof, Astor Capital claimed the inquiry constituted forbidden interference and asserted unrestricted rights over the collateral. When the London broker involved in arranging the deal questioned whether Astor was short-selling the stock, 'Mitchell' responded dismissively that borrowing shares represented normal market operations, according to the Journal. Salinas Pliego's attempt to prepay the loan in July 2024 triggered the final phase of the fraud. Advertisement Three weeks later, Astor Capital issued a default notice citing eleven violations, including the verification request, allegedly late interest payments and a Mexican government investigation into some of Salinas Pliego's companies. Legal filings cited by the Journal reveal that Salinas Pliego represented just one victim in a much larger operation. 7 American millionaire businessman and lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War, John Jacob Astor IV (1864 – 1912), circa 1898. Getty Images Sklarov allegedly controlled approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars worth of stock from multiple borrowers across the United States, United Kingdom and Asia over several years. His victims included other wealthy executives who fell for similar schemes involving companies with prestigious names like Cornelius Vanderbilt Capital Management, Shearson Lehman and Bentley Rothschild. The fraud exploited a legitimate but loosely regulated corner of finance known as securities-based lending, where wealthy individuals can access cash without selling their stock holdings. While major Swiss and American banks dominate this market, estimated by Deloitte at $4.3 trillion globally, opportunities exist for less scrupulous operators to exploit borrowers seeking alternative funding sources. 7 Sklarov's lawyer and longtime associate appears to have covertly funneled Salinas's money into a series of high-end real estate purchases across the United States and Europe. Derry, Tessa Salinas Pliego's legal team has launched an aggressive recovery campaign, obtaining a court order freezing $400 million in London commercial court and applying for access to US bank records to trace proceeds from the share sales. Their investigation uncovered the complex money flows underlying the scheme, including nearly $300 million moving through accounts controlled by Sklarov's New York attorney before returning to offshore entities. The fraudster, now living in Greece with his family and reportedly owning multiple properties plus a yacht recently renamed 'Enchantment,' continues to deny wrongdoing. In his defense, Sklarov told the Journal that he operates in the high-risk lending market and maintains that borrowers understood their stock could be lent to other parties. He argues that Astor Capital only promised not to sell shares directly on public exchanges, leaving room for transfers to third parties who might then execute sales. Despite his vast wealth, Salinas Pliego expressed genuine embarrassment about falling victim to the scheme. 'On the one hand it makes me look like an absolute idiot,' Salinas Pliego told the Journal when asked about his his legal campaign to claw back the money. 'On the other hand I feel like something needs to be done.'
Eater
21-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
A Beloved Chef Is Retiring and Closing His Bainbridge Island Restaurant
Greg Atkinson is riding off into the sunset. After a 48-year-career as a chef, food writer, and teacher, the longtime fixture of Seattle's dining world is retiring, reports the Seattle Times. The bad news? That means that his Bainbridge Island restaurant Marche has closed. The good news is that it's being replaced by a seafood and oyster spot called Sweetwater Tavern, which should open later this year. The Times recounted Atkinson's career, which started in 1977 when he got a cooking gig at his brother's Irish pub. He spent a long time working on San Juan Island, where difficulty sourcing good produce from the mainland encouraged him to use local ingredients. 'It seemed like the food I could buy from the local fishermen and farmers was higher quality than what was coming in on the trucks on the ferry,' he told the Times, 'so I just started doing that.' That made him, as the Times puts it, one of the 'first proponents of local, seasonal and sustainable foods in the Pacific Northwest.' That attitude is commonplace now, thanks in part to Atkinson. He spread this ethos through his cookbooks and writing (he won a James Beard Award in 2000 for his writing), and as an instructor at Seattle Central's Culinary Academy. In 1997 he got a job as a consultant at storied Seattle restaurant Canlis and became the head chef there for seven years. Now, with Marche closed, the restaurant part of his career is over, though he told the Times he still plans to write. Yes in my backyard (bagel) One of Seattle's hot bagel shops is expanding. Backyard Bagel, which opened in Fremont last year, announced on Instagram that it was opening a second shop at 4520 Union Bay Place near University Village, which until recently was a General Porpoise doughnut shop. 'We weren't planning on it but this opportunity was too good to pass up,' Backyard wrote on Instagram, indicating that it would open in the next few months after staffing up. Croissants from Ukraine Lviv Croissants, a Ukrainian-born sandwich chain, is planning to open its first West Coast location in the Westfield Southcenter mall, reports Puget Sound Business Journal. The chain has a production facility and storefront in Georgia, and is planning to open other shops throughout the United States, according to the Journal. Trader Joe's could come to Northgate Also from the Journal: Popular grocery chain Trader Joe's is considering opening a Northgate location, in the long-closed Bed Bath and Beyond. Trader Joe's didn't confirm these plans, but the Journal reports that the company has filed a pre-application for the space. Trader Joe's operates several stores in the Seattle area, but the latest opening, in Greenwood, still drew a massive line earlier this year.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Do We Pivot and Do an Anthology?' ‘THR Presents' Q&A With ‘Good American Family' Star Ellen Pompeo
Ellen Pompeo is taken aback by the reception to Good American Family. The Hulu limited series inspired by the true, viral story of Natalia Grace — the Ukrainian-born girl with severe dwarfism (played by Imogen Faith Reed) who was adopted as a child by the character Pompeo plays, Kristine Barnett, and her husband Michael (played by Mark Duplass) in 2010 and later accused by them of faking her age — has become a ratings hit for the streamer (the April 30 final episode was the biggest finale of 2025 across Hulu and Disney), a water-cooler series and an Emmys contender. Pompeo stepped back from her beloved role on Grey's Anatomy after nearly two decades to pursue a project that she could disappear into when playing a role starkly different than her fan-favorite groundbreaking doctor. 'If my first thing after Grey's was a total dump, it would have been pretty embarrassing. (Laughs.) But listen, it happens. It's really hard to make a show. It's really hard to make content,' says Pompeo in the video chat (above) for THR Presents' series. 'This show is not perfect. If we had a drink over dinner, I'd tell you a million things that went wrong with it and shots I didn't like. It's hard to make a streaming show … [with the] same pace and schedule as a network show, but yet it's meant to be much slower and more creative. You just don't ever know in this business what you're going to get, what the end result will be, how people will receive it. You can think it's great. The timing might be off. You don't know what's going on in the world. So anytime you have something remotely successful in what we do is just a huge blessing and a win, and I was just so relieved.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Jonathan Bailey Is Breaking Hollywood's Rules - and Winning "It Was a Very Easy Yes for Me": 'THR Presents' Q&A With 'The Day of the Jackal' Star Eddie Redmayne Glen Powell to Star in Firefighter Movie From Director Ron Howard at Amazon MGM Pompeo says she thinks even Hulu was surprised with the viewership, which she credits to the fans of her and her co-stars, who include Duplass and Reed along with Christina Hendricks, Sarayu Blue and Dulé Hill. 'I think they expected it to do well, I don't think they expected it to do as well as it did,' she says with a laugh. 'Just because people love me as Meredith Grey and love me on Grey's, that doesn't guarantee anything moving forward. That doesn't guarantee that they'll follow me, doesn't guarantee that they'll like me or believe me in any other character as anything else. And the fact that I was shown so much support is pretty meaningful.' The series flipped its perspective midway through the eight episodes in order to deliver justice to Grace's story. After exploring allegations taken from court proceedings and public reports to dramatize multiple conflicting points of view, the series ends by clarifying that Natalia was a 7-year-old child when the Barnetts adopted her, meaning she was 8 years old when they set her up to live on her own. Despite the series not letting Kristine or Michael off the hook, the pair never faced legal repercussions after they were charged with neglect of a dependent. Michael was found not guilty in 2022. The following year, the charges against Kristine were dismissed. Pompeo feels that Good American Family has completely told Kristine's story, but with the success of the series, Pompeo says conversations between her and creator/co-showrunner Katie Robbins with Hulu around how they could continue began right after the finale. 'Those conversations started happening weeks ago,' she says. 'A couple days after episode eight dropped. I couldn't actually believe how fast it happened. There are two ideas right now. Yes, Kristine Barnett's story is over, or my version of Kristine Barnett's story is over, and I think what we are trying to decipher is: Is there a good enough reason to continue on with this story, or do we pivot and do an anthology and do another story next season? And I'm not going to tell you the story that we're thinking about, but it's awesome. That's what I really want to do. I want to do an anthology because I think the story we have lined up is so good for specifically the way we do this show and switch perspectives.' Pompeo says they have a few more meetings to decide the show's future, 'and ultimately it's up to Hulu who pays the bills.' She says she wouldn't play the lead in the new idea — 'I don't think I'm right for that character' — and would remain a producer. Pompeo produced Good American Family via her ABC Signature-based production company, Calamity Jane. She says that she and Robbins have a second idea they sold and are developing to Hulu as well. After successfully now playing a villain — which was a risk for the beloved Grey's star — Pompeo is excited to see what the future holds, whether that's producing or returning on camera, and the latter will include another seven episodes on next season's Grey's Anatomy where she's also an executive producer. Pompeo says the mega-hit ABC medical drama typically schedules her to appear in the beginning, middle and the end of the season so she's never off-screen for too long, as she continues to narrate each episode. As she continues to pivot beyond the famed hospital walls of Grey's, Pompeo imagines what an Emmy nomination and recognition from her peers would mean at this stage in her career. 'On Grey's, you really only get an opportunity to be nominated for things in your first few seasons, and so that time had clearly passed. I didn't crave that kind of recognition. I craved the sort of financial and job security situation more that I did critical accolades — that's why I stayed on the show,' she candidly explains. 'Had I been [chasing] critical acclaim, I wouldn't have stayed on Grey's for so long. So it wasn't always the most important thing to me but now that I'm doing something new, it would definitely, probably help me in this next chapter of my story — moving on from Grey's, doing other roles.' She continues, 'I haven't given anybody a reason to believe that I could do anything else, so if people did recognize that I did do something else and it was worthy of even just a[n Emmy] nomination, maybe I can give myself a compliment, because I'm not so good at that! After 500 episodes of TV, I think it's OK to want a little trophy now.' This edition of THR Presents is sponsored by Hulu. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Endling by Maria Reva
Endling author Maria Reva: 'Life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. Photos / Supplied What do you do when you're a Ukrainian-born Canadian fiction writer deep into the composition of your first novel, which is set in your homeland and written in the absurdist, dark comedic tradition of Kundera, Kafka and Hašek, when Russia suddenly invades your home country, your relatives start fleeing to safety while bombs explode all around them, and your beloved grandfather refuses to leave Kherson, which is being eviscerated in real time? How can you keep on writing imaginatively when atrocities are being perpetrated against innocents in your homeland? Can you keep on living as before, when your reality has dramatically split in two? Such was the dilemma facing Maria Reva while working on Endling. At first, she was seized by panic and debilitating self-questioning. She stopped writing the novel; fiction seemed a folly during times of existential crisis. The only way she could conceive of completing the novel was to fold all those questions into the trajectory of the plot. She did that by breaking the fourth wall: inserting herself as a character narrating her own experience of stopping writing the novel to travel through her war-torn homeland. What began as fiction ended in nonfiction, making Endling neither a work of magical realism nor auto-fiction or memoir, but an original piece encapsulating elements of all three forms. Though written in four parts, the book is riven in two by Russia's very real invasion of Ukraine. The first fictional story is the cinematic unfolding of a complex metaphorical plot, which suddenly concludes by something like the running of credits at the end of a movie. The second section is marked by Reva actually entering the novel to recount her experience of viewing the horrors of wartime and retracing her failed efforts to encourage her grandfather to leave Kherson. But somehow the fictional plot is not left behind, and is woven into the war narrative. What results is a braided tale of extinction, survival and love, concluding in the resurrection of hope. If this sounds like an unattainable ambition, it might just be, but what must be admired is Reva's determination to finish the novel as an act of both desperation and renewal. So what is the plot? And what exactly is an endling? The story revolves around three Ukrainian women, Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya, who meet working for a romance tour company, Romeo Meets Yulia, which brings eager bachelors to Ukraine in search of 'docile' Eastern European wives untainted by feminism. In truth, Yeva is a maverick scientist, a malacologist, who scours Ukraine's forests and valleys in her mobile RV laboratory, collecting, cultivating and nurturing snail endlings – the last existing specimens of a species – in the hope of keeping their lines alive. Why snails? Because 'gastropods have evolved to live anywhere on the planet … have gills to live on water, or have lungs to live on land … can survive extreme temperatures, unsuitable for human life … and possess both male and female parts and reproduce solo'. Yeva believes herself to be an endling; she has no desire to marry or reproduce, despite familial pressure to do so. In fact, she has procured a canister of hydrogen cyanide to see herself out when the time is right, as well as a bridal dress to be buried in. Working as an eligible 'docile' bride is lucrative, and her earnings are funding her scientific experimentation because government grants have run dry. The other two protagonists, beautiful Nastia and her sister Solomiya, who are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Their mother is renowned for organising guerrilla theatre protests, not unlike the members of Russian radical pop band Pussy Riot. The sisters are concocting a huge public political act, mimicking their mother's exploits, in the hope that global attention will bring her out of hiding. The sisters know about Yeva's RV, and are hoping she will allow them to use it, because their grand plan is to kidnap a group of bachelors under the ruse of taking them to a special event where they will finally meet the women of their dreams. That kidnapping, they believe, will expose the exploitation of Ukrainian girls and women and bring universal attention to their plight. The women plot and persevere. Luring the bachelors into their RV along with Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species, they are on their way. But on the road, they hear what they believe to be fireworks and soon learn Ukraine has been invaded by Russia. Rather than driving away from the fierce fighting, they move towards it in search of Lefty's last living mate. At this point in the fictional narrative, the curtain falls, the imagined tale is over, credits roll and the author offers her thanks to all those who have helped her publish this fiction. Then the second part begins and the reality of war sets in. Maria has entered Ukraine and is narrating her journey to save her grandfather, but the three women are still on the road, kidnapped bachelors in tow, in search of a snail. This non-fictional fiction I found gripping but confusing, and also a bit of a slog. Like the RV going off-road, the story veered into allusive and metaphorical tangents filled with elegant explanations of snail copulation and gruesome depictions of slaughter. But like the kidnapped bachelors, I often felt like I was being driven through a void in the dark, not knowing where I or the plot was going. In the end, I admired the novel's intelligence, dark humour and ambition, as well as the author's stated belief that 'life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. For in our worst moments, stories, real or imagined, remain, so we never forget and never lose hope.
