Poker-playing Fraudster Given £3.25m Fine

Poker-playing Fraudster Given £3.25m Fine

Friday, 26 September 2014

A London-based businessman and high stakes poker player who conned the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Scotland in a £740m fraud has been ordered to pay back just £3.25m.

If Andreas Kallakis fails to pay within six months he will serve a default sentence of seven years in jail.

Kallakis, and co-defendant Alexander Williams used forged and false documents between 2003 and 2008 to borrow £740m from AIB which they used to build a 16-property commercial portfolio.

According to the Serious Fraud Office, the Bank of Scotland also agreed a loan of €29 million which according to Kallakis, was needed to convert a former passenger ferry into a super-yacht for his personal use. €5.7m of this loan was advanced.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court last year heard that Kallakis used the proceeds of the fraud to fund a playboy lifestyle. The 44-year-old maintained a fleet of chauffer driven Bentleys, a private plane, a private helicopter, a luxury yacht moored in Monaco harbour and a collection of high value art works.

Mark Thompson, Head of the SFO'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 Mr 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 will be a familiar face to many TV poker viewers. His best results were a third place finish in the 2005 888.com Pacific Poker Open where he pocketed £100,000 and two wins in PartyPoker's Poker Den for £50,000 apiece. He's probably best known for being involved in one of the most extraordinary hands in televised poker history though.

Kallakis was eliminated from PartyPoker's European Open III after his pocket aces were cracked by pocket queens. Nothing extraordinary about that but throw in the fact that another player had pocket kings and two other players had smaller pocket pairs and you've got a monstrous hand. You can see the coldest of cold deck hands below.




Tags: Andreas Kallakis, fraud