Even if the big businessmen who have earned billion dollar wealth and names worldwide are not alert, then they can be victims of cheating. This has recently been proved by the travelers of Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego. The greed of a bright website, the name of the big American family, the magnificent office videos and the loans at very low interest .. All of this also cheated an experienced businessman like Salinas. When the truth came out, not only his investment in bitcoin was shattered, but his company’s shares also fell more than 70%, causing heavy losses to both the company and the company.
Lost 45000 crores
Salinas, the owner of Grupo Salinas and one of the richest people in Latin America, has revealed that he had lost more than $ 5.5 billion, or about 45,000 crores, $ 25% of his total assets by getting caught in the trap of an international thug gang. Now Salinas is fighting a fight against this fraud network spread worldwide through his legal team. However, now this case has become a major lesson for other investors.
In the interview, he said- he felt he was a fool!
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the owner of Mexican billionaire and Grupo Salinas, has himself confessed that he fell victim to a very clever fraud, in which 25% of his total assets i.e. about $ 5.5 billion drowned about 45 thousand crores. He revealed this in an interview given to Wall Street Journal and said that I feel as if I am a fool.
How did you cheat?
In 2021, Salinas started the process of taking a loan of $ 400 million to invest in bitcoin. The loan was being taken by pledging shares of his company Grupo Elektra. He was given this loan by a Swiss Financial Advisory J, which named a company named Astor Capital Fund, which was stated to be associated with the American Astor Family.
Offer an interest of 1.15% on loan
Under this scheme, a man was revealed by the name of Thomas Aster Malon, which offered to give loans at just 1.15% interest rate. The company’s website, branding, video of the office of New York, everything looked very professional and real.
Investigation revealed that Thomas Aster Malon is actually Ukraine’s criminal Alexi Skachkov, who lives in Georgia, USA and has already been accused in cases like drug and jewelery theft. But the real mastermind Valadimir Sklarov, a Ukraine -born American citizen, who has a criminal record since the 1990s. Sklarov captured the shares of Salinas’s company Elektra and sold them to the market through this scheme.
71% dropped Elektra shares, loss of billions
The effect of this rigging was so large that Elektra’s stock fell by 71%, which flew $ 5.5 billion from Salinas’s net worth and also ended $ 4 billion from the company’s market value.
Conspiracy behind dazzle
In the initial time, there were some irregularities in Elektra’s trading, but the glitter and professional attitude of the Astor Capital removed the suspicion. In July 2024, when Salinas tried to repay the loan ahead of time, the Astor Capital handed over the reverse default notice. At the same time, the Mexican government also started investigation.
Not just Salinas, many people stranded
According to a report by Wall Street Journal, Sklarov has grabbed $ 750 million shares from several investors in the US, Britain and Asia. Salinas’s legal team has freeze $ 400 million from the London court and is now chasing where the money has gone.
Where is Sklarov?
According to the report, Sklarov is currently living in a petition called Enchantment on the coast of Greece. He is denying any wrongdoing and saying that all investors knew that under the agreement, his shares could be transferred to third party.