Two businessmen accused of defrauding AIB out of £740 million based their defence on fabricated, last-minute evidence, a London court heard yesterday.
Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams are charged with using fake guarantees to access property loans from AIB and then using the cash to fund a lifestyle of extravagance.
They are also alleged to have defrauded Bank of Scotland, part of the HBOS group, out of €29 million to convert a passenger ferry into a “superyacht”, a deal that fell through. Both men deny the charges.
Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, beginning his closing speech yesterday, said the pair were spinning a web of dishonesty to try and cover their tracks.
“An indication of dishonesty includes such matters as blaming the absent, keeping quiet as to your explanation until the last possible moment, the production of last-minute fabricated evidence and the mainly associated fraudulent and/or forged documents.
“In this case, the crown says you can be quite sure that these defendants and others did indeed agree to defraud AIB and then Bank of Scotland.
“The reason is essentially this: look at what they did; [they] acted together with a common goal in sight. Consider the defendants’ own evidence, much of it reinforcing the dishonesty and deceit.
“I say that because some of the explanations advanced to explain the documents . . . defy all logic and common sense.
“Cobbled together”
“The explanations, the crown says, have been cobbled together and, when you analyse them, they are contrived from first to last.”
Mr Temple said Mr Kallakis was the “boss” and was supported by Mr Williams and Swiss lawyer Michael Becker, who has not been charged but is alleged to have played a key role in the fraud.
“Who was it that drove the Bentley? Who was it enjoying works of art, the yacht, the aircraft, that house in Brompton Square and villa in Mykonos?” Mr Temple asked. “The answer is Mr Kallakis.”
“Fanciful” evidence
He said much of the defendants’ evidence could be described as fanciful, including testimony that crucial company records had been on a memory stick, which was either lost or stolen in Monaco.
This, he said, was Mr Kallakis and Mr Williams taking advantage of the fact the Serious Fraud Office did not seize their company’s servers, which subsequently disappeared.
He also said much of the pair’s explanation blamed absentees, calling some of them fictional creations. The trial continues.
