RegulationOct 2 2014

Confiscation order of £3.25m on property fraudster

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A high-rolling poker player who masterminded a property fraud totalling more than three-quarters of a billion pounds has been ordered to repay just £3.25m.

Achilleas Kallakis, 46, teamed up with ‘prolific forger’ Alexander Williams, also 46, to con the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Scotland on a vast scale.

Operating out of a Mayfair office as the Pacific Group of Companies, the pair duped lenders into advancing loans totalling £766m on the back of forged or false documents.

Kallakis and Williams amassed a portfolio of 16 properties across the UK, as well as an ex-passenger ferry they planned to transform into a superyacht using the banks’ money.

In January 2013, following a four-month trial at Southwark Crown Court, Kallakis and Williams were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud. Kallakis, of Chelsea, was jailed for seven years while Williams, of Fulham, was locked up for five years.

The pair were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud banks by applying for loans on high-value commercial property.

Among the buildings were the headquarters of the Daily Telegraph in Buckingham Palace Road, bought for £225m, and Lunar House, the Home Office’s asylum processing centre in Croydon, bought from Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz for £100m.

They also bought the 23-storey Market Towers in Vauxhall from Simon and David Reuben for a reported £75m.

Following a confiscation hearing, on 23 September ‘prime mover’ Kallakis was ordered to pay back £3.25m within six months or be forced to serve seven extra years.

Williams must pay just £477,474.25 within six years or face another three years in jail.

Mark Thompson, head of the Serious Fraud Office’s proceeds of crime division, said: “The SFO is committed to ensuring that fraudsters do not retain the benefit of their crimes.

“Following a lengthy and challenging confiscation investigation by the Proceeds of Crime Division, the court has made a substantial order against Kallakis.

“We will take steps to make sure the order is satisfied within the period set by the court, but if he does not pay, he faces a further lengthy term of imprisonment.”

Kallakis orchestrated the fraud using his accumulated wealth and knowledge of the property market, and Williams supported him by producing the necessary documents.

Both men were disqualified from acting as company directors for six years.

Father-of-four Kallakis – the nephew of Greek shipping magnate Pantelis ‘Lou’ Kollakis – said he wanted to turn a property worth £120m off Pall Mall into the world’s most expensive penthouse.

Kallakis – who called himself ‘his excellency’ – blew millions of pounds on an extravagant lifestyle. He bought a private jet, a helicopter, a luxury yacht moored in Monaco harbour and a collection of high-value artworks. He owned a fleet of chauffeur-driven Bentleys, a villa in Mykonos and property in Brompton Square, Chelsea, and Monaco.

Kallakis and Williams used forged documents – including bogus guarantees purporting to be from Hong Kong-based property developer SHKP and sham letters attesting to their wealth – to rip off the banks.

The fake guarantees, said to cover the rental income from the buildings, led to increased valuations and generated a £77m surplus.

A further £114m put up by AIB and due to be paid in reverse premiums – incentives for SHKP – was also plundered by Kallakis and Williams. When the scam collapsed, the banks lost a total of nearly £60m.

Police tracked the pair, who travelled by Concorde, by their BA air miles. They were fined and sentenced to 160 hours of community service.

Both Kallakis and Williams had changed their names after the peerage fraud – Kallakis was formerly known as Stefanos Kollakis, while Williams was previously called Martin Lewis.

Williams had also been convicted in February 1993 of using the names of dead people to obtain British passports.