Convicted property fraudsters Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams will face confiscation proceedings next September.
Judge Goymer, sitting at Southwark Crown Court, set a 15 September 2014 date for the confiscation proceedings, which are scheduled to last up to 10 days, the lion’s share of which is expected to concentrate on Kallakis.
The judge said that the prosecution’s stance appears to be that, in the case of Kallakis, there appear to be “hidden assets” and he will be invited to make that inference. The court heard that the dispute over allegedly hidden assets may require forensic accountants to be employed ahead of the hearing, with the judge setting a strict final deadline of 28 March 2014 for any forensic accountancy evidence.
Alexander Chalk, representing the Serious Fraud Office, also said that Kallakis’ assets may be “in risk of being dissipated”.
However, Robin Barclay, representing Kallakis, denied there was any evidence of that, saying: “There is no real risk of dissipation of the assets in this case at this point of time.”
He added that the assets involved have been managed assiduously by solicitors in order to avoid diminution in value.
Kallakis and Williams were found guilty on 17 January of obtaining £740m in loans from AIB between 2003 and 2007 to buy 16 properties, using deception and forged guarantees purportedly signed by Hong Kong-listed Sun Hung Kai Properties. They were also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud Bank of Scotland.
In May, the Court of Appeal upped their jail sentences. As a result, Kallakis’ sentence was increased from seven years to 11 years and Williams saw his five-year term rise to eight years.
