Last week a Greek businessman and poker player was sentenced to 7 years in jail for defrauding UK banks out of some 750 million British Pounds. Achilleas "The Don" Kallakis, 44, lived a jet-set lifestyle of high-stakes real estate purchases and casino/poker gambling. In total, he invested in 16 real estates for €120,000,0000 from 2003 to 2008 and had a private jet, helicopter and super yacht moored in Monaco. He was well known on the casino circuit, spending large sums on backgammon and poker.
For 5 years (2003 - 2008) Achilleas and Alex William (on the left), his university friend and business partner, used forged documents, sham legal letters and bogus guarantees to mislead the banks, which eventually lost £60 million when the scam collapsed. They also duped the Bank of Scotland into parting with £26 million in 2007 for the conversion of a ferry into a luxury yacht.
The two men were found guilty of 21 charges including conspiracy to defraud, forgery and money laundering. Kallakis was sentenced to 7 years and Williams for five. According to dailymail, Judge Andrew Goymer said: 'Achilleas Kallakis I regard you as the prime mover in this fraud you had the experience of the property market and you also had the accumulated wealth.
'Alexander Williams you had a lesser role but by no means an insignificant one.
'You were involved in the production and control of the documents that allowed it.'
Source: dailymail
