The Property Tycoon Who Died After Being Impaled On A Fence Lived In Fear Of The Russian Mafia

Scot Young, the property developer who died on Monday after falling out of his house onto the spiked metal railings outside owed millions of pounds to the Russian and Turkish mafia, according to The Telegraph

The paper also says that two years ago gangsters hung him out of a window in a hotel in Dorchester as a warning.

In another murky development, it has been revealed that Young's wife hired a private detective just a few weeks ago, in order to push her former husband to split his wealth.

According to the Daily Mail, another friend of Young believes his death is similar to the death of Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch and Young's former business partner who was found hanged in March last year.

In that occasion, the death was not treated as a suicide and an open verdict was recorded. Police said Berezovsky died via hanging in his own bathroom and there were no signs of violence.

"The police need to look at this and at the death of Boris Berezovsky again," said a friend who spoke to the Daily Mail. The same paper says that Young had sold to Berezovsky a mansion for about £20 million, and launched a massive investment in Russia dubbed "Project Moscow."

In 2006, Project Moscow ended up in a massive failure leaving Young completely broke and with debts of about £28 million, according to what he claimed in the divorce trial from his wife Michelle, the Mail reports.

In the divorce case, lasting from 2007 to 2013, Young repeatedly claimed he was not able to pay £27,500 a month as maintenance for his children and ex-wife because of his bad investments.

The couple had two daughters: Scarlet, 21, and Sasha, 19.

In November last year, the trial ruled that Young would pay £20 million to Michelle, a sum she described as "disgraceful" at the time, and later claimed she never got.

Before the sentence, Mr Justice Moor, the judge in charge of the trial, had ruled that Young lied to the court by trying to hide his wealth in order not to split it with Michelle. He was sent to jail.

While serving his six-month sentence in prison, Young started to feel he had a price on his head, according to the Mail. The paper quotes an unnamed friend saying that: "He was very worried, he said he knew someone was following him,' says the source. 'Many of Scot's friends aren't surprised that he died."

The Telegraph writes that Young's rise to stardom has always been sort of murky: leaving school at 16, Young operated in the real estate market from the 1980s, and by the middle 1990s he was one of Britain's richest man.

During the divorce trial, Michelle revealed she did not know where her husband's wealth precisely came from, and said "moving money around quietly and undetected is what my husband does. And since working for the Russians, Scot (left) has learned a lot more," as quoted by the Daily Mail.

The Telegraph reports that it is unclear whether Young still owed any Russian investors, after the tragic death of Berezovsky, his highest profile business partner.

Since the end of the trial 12 months ago Young had tried to build a new life with the American fashionista Noelle Reno, whom he met in 2006.

Reno, who writes a blog for Hello magazine and stars in the reality show Ladies of London, had always stood at his side during the divorce and prison sentence, according to the Daily Mail.

They had moved to their Montagu Square's house, which stands at the side of a flat where John Lennon once lived, just a few months ago.

Neighbours were traumatised when they found the body, impaled on the railings after a 60-feet fall from the balcony.