A $400 Million Bitcoin Bet and the Private Loan Behind It

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego made a major push into Bitcoin during the 2021 bull market, seeking to invest roughly $400 million as prices surged. Instead of selling shares in his listed company, Grupo Elektra, Salinas opted to raise money for his Bitcoin purchase by borrowing against his stock.

The financing was done through Lombard lending, a private credit setup where shares are pledged as collateral. This lets borrowers raise large sums while keeping their equity exposure intact. For wealthy investors, it is a common way to fund big crypto positions without selling stock, paying tax upfront, or giving up control.

Loan Agreement and Collateral Terms

In July 2021, Salinas entered into a stock-loan deal with Astor Asset Management 3, a Canada-registered lender, as per a Financial Times report. Under the agreement, he received access to up to $150 million in cash, backed by roughly $416 million worth of Elektra shares. Additional funding for the Bitcoin trade came from international banks.

According to Salinas, the shares were pledged as collateral and were not meant to be sold unless a default occurred. The interest rate on the loan was set at 1.15% with collateral valued at nearly four times the loan amount. Salinas says these terms did not appear unusual given the overcollateralization.

Shares Sold as Bitcoin Bet Unfolded

Problems surfaced later in 2021 when Elektra shares, which are thinly traded and tightly held, began appearing in the market. Salinas says his team discovered that the pledged shares had been transferred out of custody and sold.

“It was the perfect fraud,” Salinas says. “The guy took my stock, sold it, and gave me the money as a loan, Jesus, that’s as bad as it gets.”

Bank disclosures later ordered by a New York court showed that about $420 million was raised from sales of Elektra shares. Of that amount, investigators estimate that roughly $104 million was used to fund the loan provided to Salinas. The remainder was routed through multiple entities connected to the lender.

Market Impact and Crypto Risk

Once details of the alleged sale became public, Elektra’s shares fell sharply and were suspended from trading. While Salinas has not disclosed how his Bitcoin trade ultimately performed, the episode shows how crypto exposure financed through private leverage can introduce risks that have nothing to do with market prices.

In this case, the problem was not Bitcoin price swings but how the deal was set up. Control over the shares, vague contract language, and where the assets were held ended up mattering more than market moves. Unlike bank loans, many private stock-loan arrangements run through offshore custodians and unregulated lenders, which gives borrowers very little protection when something goes wrong.

Lender’s Defense and Rehypothecation Claims

The lender’s representative, later identified as Val Sklarov, rejects the fraud claims. Sklarov says the contract clearly allowed rehypothecation, meaning the pledged shares could be reused or transferred by the lender as part of the loan structure.

He says borrowers in this market understand that lenders may sell collateral and that such practices are standard in private stock-backed lending. Salinas disputes this, stating that selling the shares violated the agreement and that he never intended to exit his equity position to gain Bitcoin exposure.

“I know exactly what a Lombard loan is,” Salinas says. “If I wanted to sell my stock, I’d have done it myself.”

Legal Action Continues

Salinas is pursuing Sklarov through England’s High Court, seeking recovery of the shares or their value. He acknowledges that recovering the stock may be difficult but says the case is about accountability.

“If this is not stopped,” he says, “I won’t be the last.”

For the crypto market, the dispute serves as a warning. As more high-net-worth investors use complex leverage to access Bitcoin, risks increasingly lie not in the asset itself, but in the financial structures built around it.

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