I know McMafia killed Scot.. police must too
Cases are reopened after Skripal poisonings
Ex-wife of property tycoon feared murdered by Russian gangsters challenges detectives to find them
The ex-wife of a property tycoon feared murdered by Russian hitmen hopes a new probe will reveal the truth about his death.
Michelle Young believes Scot Young was thrown from his apartment after a row with Moscow gangsters over cash, in an echo of the BBC’s recent organised crime drama McMafia.
Scot, 52, fell to his death on railings below his luxury home in Marylebone, London, in December 2014.
At the time, police said it was not suspicious but detectives are to investigate his case in the wake of this month’s poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Scot’s is one of 14 cases which will be re-examined to find out if foul play was involved.
And Michelle, 53, who has always claimed her ex-husband was murdered, is praying the investigation will unlock secrets about Dundee-born Scot’s death and the £1billion fortune she believes is hidden in offshore accounts.
She also hit out at British authorities for waiting until Skripal was targeted before re- examining her former husband’s death.
She said: “My hope is that the British Government and the police do their jobs. Let us be frank about it, it’s not just one suspicious death, it’s 14.
“Why have the British authorities not done their job here?
“The news that there is to be a re-investigation into deaths including Scot ’ s cou ld be a breakthrough.
“He was murdered because he started telling the people he’d used to hide his money that he wanted it back.
“The police said about six weeks ago that they would not be reopening the investigation regarding the financial crime.
“But things have changed. I would instead like them to try to prove who murdered my ex-husband. “Scot trusted third parties to look after his financial matters and I believe third parties are implicit in his murder.” Scot was one of a group of friends, known as the Cipriani Five after the London restaurant where they met, all of whom died between 2010 and 2014. The five – including Boris Berezovsky, a former friend turned arch- critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin – are on the list of 14 being looked at again by police and security services following the attempted murders of the Skripals.
Michelle believes her ex-husband, like the characters in McMafia, used tax havens to hide his wealth and concealed hi s involvement in complicated business arrangements behind multiple layers of ownership.
He also invested in a scheme to develop a huge site in Moscow and the
deal, called Project Moscow, failed to become a reality. Scot blamed it for destroying his fortune.
Michelle’s feelings towards the judicial system are evident from the T-shirt she wore during an interview at her flat in Kensington, London.
A quote from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” signalled her frustration with the legal system.
Michelle now rents a flat two miles
from the Montagu Square townhouse where Scot died. It’s a different world to the one she used to live in.
She married Scot in 1995 and their wealth grew with telecoms and chipand-pin technology investments.
Properties owned by the family included Woodper r y House in Oxfordshire, Bakeham House on Surrey’s Wentworth Estate and Wootton Place in the Cotswolds.
Scot fell from a fifth-floor window on to spiked steel railings. His death has never been fully explained, nor has the riddle surrounding the vast wealth he is believed to have hidden in a string of offshore tax havens.
Of the Cipriani Five, billionaire oligarch Berezovsky was found hanged in his bathroom at Sunninghill, near Ascot in Berkshire in March 2013.
A pathologist retained by his daughter pointed to marks on his body that suggested he had been murdered. He had previously survived several assassination attempts, including a bomb in his car that killed his chauffeur.
Property tycoons Robbie Curtis and Paul Castle jumped in front of trains, in 2012 and 2010 respectively.
Johnny Elichaoff, ex-husband of TV presenter Trinny Woodall, leapt from the roof of a shopping centre in Bayswater in 2014.
The deaths of Curtis, Castle and Elichaoff have been recorded as suicides. Berezovsky’s and Scot’s were given open verdicts.
Michelle said Scot was always secretive and she received a call in 2006 saying her husband was in The Priory clinic and had lost all his money.
Maintenance payments stopped and Michelle and the couple’s daughters, Scarlet and Sasha, found themselves with no home and broke.
She was eventual ly awarded £26.6million following a lengthy divorce battle in the High Court but has never seen a penny.
The coroner cited “conf licting evidence” over his death. The expert said there was no proof of foul play and recorded a narrative verdict, effectively leaving Scot’s death unexplained.
US private investigator L Burke Files, based in Arizona, took on Michelle’s case on the understanding she would pay when she could afford to.
She said she is working “day and night” with activists to try to expose the full circumstances surrounding her ex-husband’s death.
Michelle said: “We were together for nearly 20 years and Scot’s biggest phobia was heights.
“From the position where he fell and the position of the window, I believe it was impossible to land where he did on those railings.
“Police didn’t carry out proper forensic examinations. Scot had one or two laptops and they were never found.
“The announcement that these deaths are to be looked at again will put police and authorities under pressure.
“If the police ask me, I’ll happily talk to them. I just want the truth and the justice that my daughters and I rightfully deserve.
“Not only was Scot the legal and beneficial owner of assets of just under £1billion, he was also the legal owner of the trusts and foundations offshore where he used many professionals, including 30 law firms, dozens of banks and about eight asset management companies to hide his assets during divorce proceedings.”
She believes the cash is spread across Leichtenstein, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands.
Michelle said: “Scot was no different to any other wealthy person that uses offshore structures to conceal their wealth. I think it’s immoral that this is allowed to happen.
“I know Scot was murdered. I’m not afraid to say it and I’ll never stop my pursuit of justice.”
Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, were targeted with a novichok nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4. They are both seriously ill in hospital.
The attack has led to increased tenstions between the United Kingdom and Russia, resulting in tit- for- tat retaliations between the governments, including the expulsion of 23 diplomats on both sides.
Michelle said: “The UK Government should let the Russian authorities see what evidence they have on the attack on Skripal. “Russia is denying it is involved so it should be allowed to see what evidence there is against them. “I really want Scot’s murder solved.” A spokesma n for London’s Metropol i tan Pol ice said : “A post-mortem examination was held and the cause of death was given as multiple injuries consistent with fall from height and impaling.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious.
“This mat ter was thoroughly investigated with CCTV viewed of the area, phone records examined, witness statements taken and a special post-mortem examination held.
“An inquest was conducted by the coroner and Met officers gave evidence at that inquest.”