The founder of a printing firm yesterday denied printing fraudulent letterheads for a businessman accused of a multi-million pound fraud.
Giving evidence, Martin Bier, founder of Kingfisher Press, denied he had agreed to print letterheads using the Crédit Suisse logo for Achilleas Kallakis, who, with co-defendant Alexander Williams, is accused of defrauding Allied Irish Bank out of £740 million in property loans on the back of fake guarantees. Both deny the charges.
The court heard that Mr Bier and Mr Kallakis were friends. Despite one of Mr Bier’s former employees, Keenan Dennedy, testifying that he was told to print letterheads with a Crédit Suisse logo, Mr Bier said he had never been asked to or had ever authorised such a job.
“Not the truth”
“I know it not to be the truth, so I told Mr Kallakis I would be more than happy to come to court and refute that statement,” Mr Bier said. He also denied he had been asked to produce a logo by either Mr Kallakis or Mr Williams.
Prosecutor Victor Temple QC challenged this, saying: “Your company was indeed asked to run up that Crédit Suisse logo and you delegated it to Mr Dennedy – that’s the truth of it, isn’t it?”
Mr Bier responded: “I am shocked.”
Jurors also heard Mr Bier had admitted to the Serious Fraud Office that he had previously printed certificates of honorary titles for Mr Kallakis, who was later convicted of fraudulently selling such titles to Americans.
The court also heard from chartered accountant Nigel Grummitt, who examined documents from the Oregon Finance Corporation, which offered AIB a guarantee for Mr Kallakis’s property loans.
Mr Grummitt said he found significant issues with documents purporting to show the company’s financial position.
Among these was one document that listed the company’s balance sheet for December 31st, 2005, showing just over $30 million in the section titled “cash at bank”. At the same time, another document for the period showed $230 million in the same section. “I think there are significant anomalies found in the accounts,” Mr Grummitt said. The case continues.
