Businessmen defrauded bank for superyacht conversion

Two London businessmen have been found guilty of defrauding banks of millions of pounds and euros to finance projects including a superyacht conversion.

The two men, Achilleas Michaelis Kallakis (44) and Alexander Martin Williams (44) were sentenced in Southwark Crown Court in London on 17 January for a total of 12 years on two counts of conspiring to defraud banks of £740 million and €29 million respectively, the Serious Fraud Office investigating the case has confirmed.

In the case of the superyacht conversion, the two attempted to swindle the Bank Of Scotland (BOS) of a €29 million loan to finance a superyacht conversion of a passenger ferry, eventually found to be worthless.

Fortunately, the BOS had advanced only a proportion of the loan, €5.7 million, during the fraud carried out between 2007 and 2008.

The ferry upon which the €29 million loan had been secured was not only found valueless but a significant net liability as a result of work that had been carried out which had left the vessel contaminated with asbestos and no longer water tight.



Kallakis, who the jury heard used the proceeds of the loans to maintain a private plane and a luxury yacht, and Williams carried out their frauds by providing worthless guarantees. To leverage finance from the BOS for the superyacht conversion Kallakis presented a guarantee from Oregon Finance Corporation, a company he falsely put forward as a billion dollar ship-owning company belonging to his family trust.

"This was an audacious, persistent fraud that enabled these defendants, Mr Kallakis in particular, to lead the lifestyle of the super-rich,” commented Serious Fraud Office case manager, Ronan Duff.

“The SFO have been equally persistent in investigating this elaborate scam and in ensuring that justice has been delivered".

The same tactics used to mislead the BOS were applied years earlier to defraud Allied Irish Banks ("AIB"), who first alerted the SFO to the case. From 2003 to 2008 the two attempted to swindle the AIB of loans amounting to £740 million to finance a 16-property portfolio using a forged guarantee from a Hong Kong company.

Kallakis and Williams were sentenced to prison for seven and five years respectively on two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

Related Links

The Serious Fraud Office Website

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