A bitter £20million divorce and murky deals with Russian billionaires: Tycoon Scot Young 'feared for his safety and thought he was being followed' before railings plunge 

• Businessman in horror fall spent eight months in prison for contempt
• Friends claim he came to believe there was price on his head 
• Few knew details of his fortune or mystery 'Project Moscow' investment

By Natalie Clarke for the Daily Mail and Andrew Tillett For Mailonline In Phoenix, Arizona

Published: 18:22 EST, 10 December 2014 | Updated: 03:11 EST, 11 December 2014

Shocking: Scot Young and fiancee Noelle Reno

Every sudden death is shocking, but the manner in which Scot Young died has given a dimension of real horror to this particular tragedy. Mr Young was impaled on iron railings on Monday evening after falling four storeys from his London penthouse.

His former wife, Michelle, who fought a bitter seven-year divorce battle with him, is devastated. 

Their two daughters, Scarlet, 21, and Sash, 19, are beside themselves. So too is his Bravo reality star girlfriend of five years, Noelle Reno.

But while his immediate family feel profound shock at his death, others who were acquainted with Mr Young do not feel the same way.

As soon as his death became public, rumours began that Mr Young, 52, did not jump, or fell – but was pushed to his gruesome death. 

While this might sound outlandish, some say it is just as preposterous to suggest that he would contemplate taking his own life.

A source who knew Mr Young well says the property developer had told friends just last month that he feared for his safety.

‘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.’

Last year, too, Mr Young had told friends he was worried someone was going to try to kill him. 

He served eight months in prison last year after a judge jailed him for contempt of court for failing to reveal the whereabouts of the £400million fortune that was at the centre of his seven-year divorce battle with his wife.

Feverish gossip among friends and associates yesterday involved claims that while in prison, Mr Young apparently came to believe there was ‘a price on his head’.

And while police initially said that Mr Young’s death was ‘not being treated as suspicious at this time’ they are now under pressure to review their position. So could there be another explanation for Scot Young’s death. If so, who might wish him dead?

The answer to that question almost certainly lies in Mr Young’s more shadowy business dealings.

Officially, Mr Young earned his fortune as a property developer but such is the mystery surrounding his complicated finances that it still remains unclear whether he actually did possess that £400million fortune, or whether he was, as he continually claimed during his epic divorce battle, completely broke.

Macabre: Mr Young was impaled on iron railings after falling four storeys from his London penthouse

Passage of time: Mr Young with ex-wife Michelle on their wedding day in 1995 (left) and fiancee Noelle Reno

The house in Marylebone where Scot Young fell to death

Michelle, his former wife, has pursued the location of these millions obsessively since the breakdown of their 11-year marriage in 2006, but the location of the money – if indeed it exists – remains elusive.

Officially, Mr Young earned a fortune as a property developer, but he was always secretive about his dealings and rumours have abounded that some of his wealthy business associates sailed close to the wind when it came to matters of the law.

‘There was talk that Scot was considering co-operating with the authorities about some of his business dealings and that could have been very unpleasant for a lot of people,’ the source added.

Then, of course, there is the Russian connection. It was through his involvement in a massive and highly secretive property development scheme in Russia, Project Moscow, that Mr Young claimed in 2006 to have inexplicably lost his entire fortune, which was estimated by some to be £2billion. 

The deal had suddenly collapsed, wiping out all his money and leaving him with debts of £28million.

Fall: Mr Young, pictured this year, went bankrupt after he made his fortune 'fixing' deals for the super-rich

Mystery: Michelle Young (right outside the High Court) once 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'

It was later claimed in court by his embittered ex-wife’s legal team that Mr Young’s sudden and bizarre loss of his gigantic fortune was part of a plan entitled ‘Project Marriage Walk’.

Mr Young refuted the claim but, whatever the truth, the marriage did indeed collapse shortly afterwards.

Oligarch Boris Berezovsky was a friend of Mr Young’s and was believed to be an investor. As we know, Mr Berezovsky, 67, was found dead at his former wife Galina’s home in Sunninghill, Berkshire, in March last year.

He was found with one of his favourite black cashmere scarves around his neck. A coroner was not satisfied that his death was suicide and recorded an open verdict at his inquest.

In light of Mr Young’s death, it now seems a rather macabre twist that among the many properties owned by Scot Young, he sold one of them, a mansion on the exclusive Wentworth estate in Surrey, to Mr Berezovsky for a reported £20.5million.

Scot Young’s ordinary beginnings are at odds with the glamour and controversy that was to cling to him in adulthood. He grew up in a tenement block in Dundee and left school at 16 with few qualifications.

Also dead: Boris Berezovsky at the £20million Surrey mansion which he bought from Scot Young

Couple: Scot Young fell to his death on Monday and was engaged to Ladies Of London star Noelle Reno, pictured together on holiday in January, who said she was 'distraught' after his death

He met Michelle, in 1988, and they married in 1995. Michelle later recalled that when they met he was already in the property business but ‘was always very secretive, even then’.

As the marriage wore on, the money began rolling in on a spectacular scale. Scot and Michelle, a former model and fashion buyer, and their daughters moved into a £14million Palladian mansion in Oxfordshire described in the property pages of upmarket publications as a ‘mini Buckingham Palace’. The house was filled with antiques and artworks.

The couple’s property portfolio included six houses in Belgravia. The girls had Cartier watches on their birthdays. Michelle received £1million of Graff jewellery for her 40th birthday.

Mr Young enjoyed hosting lavish parties with the finest wines and food. When they went on holiday to Barbados and the South of France, they went by private jet. The weekly shop was ordered from Harrods.

If Michelle was astonished that property developing could yield such fabulous rewards, she didn’t probe too closely. But she did say in an interview in 2010: ‘Moving money around quietly and undetected is what my husband does. And since working for the Russians, Scot has learned a lot more about how to operate discreetly.’

In 2006, the party ended abruptly with the mysterious vanishing of Scot Young’s fortune. In 2009, he declared himself bankrupt.

He was last seen with his fiancee Noelle, left, with friends at a Christmas party in London on November 27

Michelle was seeking a £200million settlement: her husband said he didn’t have a penny to give her. Michelle claimed it had all been siphoned off into offshore accounts. Curiously, during the divorce hearings, Mr Young was unable to provide the High Court with any paperwork on what happened to his fortune.

In 2009, he was found guilty of contempt of court and given a six-month suspended jail sentence. Last year, after failing to disclose his finances, that sentence was upheld and he went to prison.

In another interview in 2011, Michelle said: ‘I feel Scot has stolen our lives from us. By punishing me, he is also punishing his children.’

Her daughter Sasha said at the time: ‘All this has made me doubt his love for me. How could it not?’

Post separation, Michelle and her daughters moved around rented properties. Scot did the same. The epic divorce battle began and Michelle, who seemed to grow more obsessed as time went on. 

Free from Michelle, Scot could be quite overt in his pursuit of women. According to one source: ‘He seemed to have a type, tall hard-faced blondes.’

Numerous wealthy individuals stepped in to take sides and offer financial support. Michelle’s supporters included billionaire clothing retailer, Sir Philip Green, restaurateur Richard Caring, philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter, Jaeger boss Harold Tillman and film producer Stephen Kay who reportedly donated between them more than £1.2million towards the divorce costs and living expenses.

Another British businessman, Kevin Cash, who has interests in property and Gulf oil, reportedly gave Michelle nearly £200,000 between November 2006 and April 2008. Michelle has described him as Scot’s ‘best friend’.

Five years ago, Scot met the American Noelle Reno, a model turned television presenter. Despite being ‘penniless’, Scot and Noelle, 31, were seen dining at fashionable London restaurants.

This year she appeared in the television show, Ladies of London, which followed the lives of socialite women living in the Capital.

Couple: Mr Young and his fiancee Noelle Reno

Looking a little put out, Noelle tells the camera: ‘We’ve been trying to get married for over four years and it still hasn’t happened, because of his divorce.’ 

Today Noelle's aunt Debra Lee Svinicki said her niece had been 'very happy' with Mr Young.

She had been expected at her mother's home in Arizona at Christmas until Mr Young's death this week, her aunt said.

Noelle, 33, was brought up in Seattle, Washington, then in California after her parents divorced.

Mrs Reno, 63, is a medical sales consultant who works in Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona.

The television star's father, Donald Reno jr, 70, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor was not at home or work today in Seattle, where he still lives.

Neither was her brother Chip, 31, who also lives in Seattle. 

At her home in Rio Verde, a desert community just outside Phoenix, Arizona, Mrs Svinicki, whose husband Stephen is Noelle's mother, Carole Anne's brother, said: 'I’m very shocked at this tragedy. 

'I’m sure Noelle must be very upset. The family will rally around Noelle.'

She said her niece was very happy with Mr Young.

‘Carole is very close to Noelle, she visits her as often as she can,' she said.

'I don’t know how close she is to Scot.

'I just know that she [Noelle] was very happy with him.'

Noelle had been due in Arizona - where her mother lives after moving to Los Angeles when she divorced Mr Reno when her daughter was 17 - later this month.

‘At Christmas we expect to see Noelle, but we’re don’t know now because this has happened, her aunt said. 

‘I have no idea if she will stay in London or what she will do next.' 

Mrs Svinicki added that she was proud of her niece and had watched her on the show. 

‘I’ve watched Ladies of London a couple of times I’m not the kind of person who watches those type of shows, but its fun and its fun to see Noelle,' she said.

‘Noelle has had a lot of success over the last ten years.'

With Mr Young's death, the question of what happened to his millions may never be answered. 

One theory emerging is that he went to such lengths to conceal his money that he ended up being unable to get to it.

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