SerpApi.Org
A Mexican billionaire hired private spies to secretly record a City lawyer who was plied with alcohol during a five-hour dinner in a case involving an alleged $415m (£310m) fraud.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who is one of Mexico’s richest people, hired Black Cube, an Israeli intelligence firm, to gather information about alleged fraudster Vladimir Sklarov, according to a Court of Appeal judgment.
Black Cube’s investigators launched an undercover sting against Mr Sklarov’s solicitors, from City law firm DWF, by pretending to be executives at an Italian oil company.
A partner at DWF was lured to meetings under the false notion that Black Cube’s spies were potential clients, looking for lawyers for a case involving a dispute with the United Arab Emirates.
After an initial zoom meeting, the lawyer was invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Amsterdam for a meeting at the Dylan Hotel, where rooms cost £800 a night.
Black Cube, which was paid a retainer of £1.1m with potential bonuses, was instructed to build a rapport with the partner so he would reveal private information about the case, which was then used by Mr Salinas’s legal team.
It culminated in a meeting at a restaurant in Amsterdam, where the DWF lawyer was plied with alcohol for five and a half hours and tricked into divulging information about the case.
In his judgment, Lord Justice Males said the tactics had “no place in litigation in the courts of England and Wales”, ending an asset-freezing order against Mr Sklarov as part of his decision.
While the judge did not rule on whether Black Cube’s actions amounted to a criminal offence, he wrote it was “clear that this conduct was a serious abuse of the process of the court”.
Mr Salinas owns Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate, and controls one of the largest Spanish-language TV channels in the world.
He is engaged in a prolonged battle with Mr Sklarov in the High Court regarding claims he stole $415m from him through fraud.
Mr Sklarov is alleged to have lied about his connections to the billionaire Astor dynasty to persuade Mr Salinas to transfer stock to a company called Astor Asset Group.
The Ukrainian is accused of carrying out multiple stock-lending frauds worldwide using fake names and pretending to have links to prominent business families. Mr Sklarov was arrested in Chicago in May this year and charged with fraud by US authorities.
In the case involving Mr Salinas, he allegedly took $415m worth of stock in the businessman’s Grupo Elektra as collateral for a $115m loan, which he then failed to return. Grupo Elektra is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange.
Mr Sklarov insists that Mr Salinas defaulted on the loan and says he used aliases, such as “Gregory Mitchell”, to avoid being discriminated against for being Jewish and Ukrainian.
He has claimed that it is “common practice” in the business world to use company names associated with successful business families, such as Astor.
Black Cube is a private investigations firm started by former Israeli spies, with offices in London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Madrid.
The firm was started by Avi Yanus, a former Israeli intelligence officer, in 2010. It drew controversy for covertly surveilling women and journalists who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assaults.
A spokesman for Mr Salinas said the information used in the case against Mr Sklarov was obtained lawfully, Bloomberg reported.
A Black Cube spokesman said: “This evidence was legally obtained and that fact was not contradicted by the court.”
A DWF spokesman said: “We take this matter very seriously, but as these issues remain subject to ongoing court proceedings, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
The Court of Appeal ruled that the case should proceed to trial.
