The Serious Fraud Office is seeking more than £92,000 from a convicted fraudster who made a £250,000 donation to fund building works and a new theatre at his daughters’ school.
Achilleas Kallakis was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2013 after being convicted of a £750m mortgage fraud and ordered to pay £3.25m, based on an assessment of his assets at the time.
That might have been the end of the matter had it not been for legal action taken in 2020 by Kallakis’ son Michael over a 2005 donation of £250,000 to Francis Holland School.
Francis Holland is a £21,000-a-year private school in central London that had been attended by Kallakis’ daughters. The donation had been made to fund building works and the school named its new theatre after the family.
However, when the Kallakis family learned that the school had removed the dedication plaque, Michael Kallakis took legal action against the school.
The school agreed to pay him a settlement of £92,500 plus £12,000 costs.
The SFO is now seeking that settlement money back in a confiscation hearing taking place at Southwark Crown Court yesterday and today. It claimed it is a “tainted gift” and the proceeds of crime.
It alleged the money was paid from a “sham” trust that had ostensibly been set up for the benefit of Achilleas Kallakis’ children but instead was used by him and his wife.
In court today, SFO lawyer Christopher Convey said the trust appeared to have been used to pay an Amex bill and buy clothes and jewellery.
Giving evidence today, Michael Kallakis said he had sought the money back to fund litigation.
Martin Evans QC, representing Achilleas Kallakis, said the arguments about the trust were “a distraction”. He said the settlement money from the school was not from the proceeds of crime, it is not even the partial return of the donated money and is not money connected to Achilleas Kallakis.
“It is the settlement of a civil claim made by someone else,” he said.
The money is “completely unrelated” to Achilleas Kallakis and the original gift, he told the judge.
“It may be unattractive… but it does not make it his,” he said.
Giles Bedlow, lawyer for Michael Kallakis, said he agreed the settlement money was not a refund of the gift.
“The theatre has been built,” he said. “Those sums have been expended.”
However, Convey for the SFO said the judge, Justice Tony Baumgartner, should “look beyond… constructs.”
“The reality is that this was father and son working hand-in-glove,” he said.
HH Justice Baumgartner ended the hearing saying he would give judgment within four weeks.
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