A former Lake Forest homeowner with a federal fraud record is back in custody in Chicago, accused of running a global stock-backed lending scheme that prosecutors say bled a billionaire of more than $450 million. Federal agents arrested the man this week, and he is being held in a downtown federal lockup while a judge decides whether to send him to New York to face the charges. Public records tie him to a 7,000-square-foot house in Lake Forest and show he has a prior federal fraud conviction.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, an indictment unsealed Tuesday charges Vladimir Sklarov, who has used the aliases “Gregory Mitchell” and “Mark Simon Bentley,” with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors say Sklarov ran an outfit called Astor Asset Group that pretended to be backed by the famed Astor family, persuading a victim to transfer company stock as collateral, then selling off those shares and diverting the cash. Sklarov…..