The UK’s largest-ever mortgage fraud case took another turn as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) recovered an additional £92,500 from Achilleas Kallakis, one of the criminals involved in the £740m scheme.
Kallakis was convicted a decade ago, but the recent discovery of criminal proceeds concealed through a school donation prompted the SFO to take action.
In 2005, Kallakis donated funds towards a theatre at his child’s private school in London. When the school removed the Kallakis name from the theatre, the family sued, inadvertently revealing the additional funds to the SFO.
A three-day hearing at Southwark Crown Court confirmed the donation, paid through a complex family trust fund, as proceeds of crime.
Kallakis and his co-conspirator, Alexander Williams, were imprisoned in 2013 after an SFO investigation exposed their mortgage fraud, which involved forging documents and making false claims to obtain loans from Allied Irish Banks and the Bank of Scotland.
The loans enabled them to acquire a London property portfolio worth £740m, including a £75m 23-story tower in Vauxhall, a £100m processing centre in Croydon, and the £225m headquarters of a national newspaper in Central London.
Despite claims from other parties associated with the family trust, His Honour Judge Baumgartner ruled in favour of the SFO.
Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, said: “Today’s ruling demonstrates our determination to go after fraudsters, no matter when they committed a crime or where they hide their assets.
“In the last two years alone, we have recovered 100% of the funds we have gone after – almost £140m in proceeds of crime – including from cases a decade after prosecution like Kallakis.”
The SFO has already confiscated £3.25m from Kallakis and continues to investigate the proceeds of crime related to Kallakis and Williams.
The judge ordered Kallakis to pay the £92,500 within 28 days.
