Green Property puts Telegraph HQ on the block for €250m

Dublin-based group Green Property has appointed CBRE to sell the headquarters of Telegraph Media Group (TMG) for £200 million (€250 million).

Green took over the London property during the financial crisis when its former owner, Greek businessman Achilleas Kallakis, was accused by AIB of fraud.

British commercial property magazine Estates Gazette reported yesterday that CBRE had been appointed to sell the 230,000sq ft Victoria office block at 111 Buckingham Palace Road SW1. The building houses the publisher of the Daily Telegraph and related businesses.

Kallakis fraud

Kallakis and a business partner were convicted of defrauding AIB and another bank of £61 million in 2012. The Greek businessman was later sentenced to seven years in prison.

During his trial, Britain's serious fraud office said: "This was an audacious, persistent fraud that enabled these defendants, Mr Kallakis in particular, to lead the lifestyle of the super-rich."

The trial was told of how Kallakis bought 111 Buckingham Palace Road for £224 million from the Barclay brothers, who own TMG.

Defence counsel for Kallakis claimed “AIB was clearly part of the gold rush” when explaining how the bank ended up lending his client more than €900 million.

The court heard that AIB lent £224 million to a company owned by Kallakis to fund the purchase of the building.

Judge Andrew Goymer accused AIB staff of acting "carelessly and imprudently" when he sentenced Kallakis to prison in January 2013.