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High stakes poker player and Greek tycoon, Achilleas Kallakis, was charged with defrauding two European banks on Monday, March 1, 2010 in London. He had to post £140,000 bail and must report to the Chelsea police station once a week until his court appearance on May 4, 2010. The charges brought against Kallakis carry a possible 10 year prison sentence.

Kallakis was one of the most prominent real estate deal-makers on London’s property scene. He invested more than £850m buying some of London’s most valuable properties including the Department of Health building in Vauxhall and the Home Office’s Immigration and nationality Directorate in Croydon. In 2007, he was said to be developing a 20,000 square foot flat in a St. James Square property that would sell for £105 million, making it the most expensive penthouse apartment in the world. At that point in time, he was ranked the 11th richest Greek in the world worth about £250 million.

As with most businessmen, Kallakis used bank loans to fund his property investments. Problem is, he and his colleague, Alexander Williams, are accused of obtaining such loans fraudulently. The alleged fraud is based on Kallakis’ claims that tenant leases were more expensive and longer than they really were. Allied Irish Bank (AIB) was one of the banks affected by the alleged scam. AIB fronted Kallakis a series of loans over a five-year period for the purchase of UK real estate. In 2008, they became aware of some “issues with the loans”. Upon an AIB investigation, the bank found the tenants of “their” properties to be linked directly to Kallakis. As a result, they immediately seized the properties and sold them at a £56 million loss. Kallakis is also accused of defrauding the Bank of Scotland causing that bank to lose £5 million on a 2008 loan given to Kallakis to refurbish a former ferry into a luxury yacht.

The Serious Fraud Office along with the City of London police began their own investigation of the AIB allegations which lead to a raid of three Kallakis’ properties. Kallakis and Williams are currently charged with two counts of conspiracy to defraud, 13 counts of forgery, five counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of money laundering and one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception. Based on the investigation, the SFO said it “believes that further financial institutions have also been deceived by the suspects”.

High stakes and high risks seem to be among Kallakis’ favorite things. An avid poker player, though far from popular, known as “the Don”, Kallakis made regular trips to Vegas, enrolled with several big-time poker websites and has even been featured on some televised poker games. He has won $359,090 in live poker tournaments which places him third on Greece’s all time money list.

If the allegations hold true and Kallakis is convicted, the once well-respected Greek tycoon will have played his last high-stakes, high-risk game.

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Trishelle Cannatella is in the spotlight again after making the 2010 World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational final table. Cannatella is no stranger to the spotlight. With her gorgeous, sandy blond hair and the body of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model (not to mention her televised menage-a-trois on MTV’s The Real World: Las Vegas which launched her to immediate stardom) one can’t help but take notice.

Read More about Trishelle Cannatella here.

Tom Dwan screen name Durrrr posted in his blog about a 30 hour session and feeling a little ill. He has been playing 7 Game recently, which is a mixed like H.O.R.S.E., but with the edition of Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Holdem. Yesterday, Tom Dwan ended up about 600k on the day.

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Cyril Mouly con by BadBeatBoris two plus two

Cyril Mouly is wanted by international community for fraud. Cyril is known for being the new high stakes whale playing in Bobby’s room at the Bellagio Casino. Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey would lick their chops at any chance they could get to play him. Unfortunately this is all over now that he’s on the run. High Stakes rail birds were so pleased at the thought of this mystery man that they created a whole thread about him on TWO PLUS TWO and nicknamed him Le Frenchman.

When I heard he was a billionaire and playing the stakes he was playing, I did an hour or two of research on him. All I could find on him was an address in a French wine region. I found it odd at the time that there was no info on this mystery billionaire. This put up a huge red flag in my head at the time. Usually, if your a billionaire, there is going to be a ton of info on you on Google or elsewhere.

Here is translation from French website:

Cyril was the Frenchman, was the last guest of honor in Las Vegas, where he played very big in the casinos. (Photo Eric DESPUJOLS)

Cyril Mouly, presumed innocent until he has been sentenced by a criminal court would have played more than 4 million at the casino between 2007 and 2008. During the same evening in Cannes he would bet close to 300 000. Cyril the Frenchman, long observed by the officers of the executive subcommittee of the races and games, has now disappeared. The PJ has lost track of him since he escaped to British customs.

Cyril is on the run.

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Washington Wizards’ NBA superstar, Gilbert Arenas, may have played his last professional basketball game.

Gilbert Arenas Photo

The story begins aboard a Washington Wizard’s charter flight heading home from Phoenix on December 19th. It was here that Arenas and teammate, Javaris Crittenton, entered into a typical game of what was thought to be friendly, high stakes poker. Two days later, in their home locker room, Arenas allegedly threatened Crittenton by pulling three guns, placing them on a chair by Crittenton’s locker and telling Crittenton to “pick one”. Arenas effort to intimidate his teammate was replied to by Crittenton replying that he had a gun of his own. It was reported that at one point in time, the players had guns drawn on each other but there were no shots fired. All this potentially violent drama was allegedly triggered by a $25,000 gambling debt Arenas incurred during that December 19th flight. High stakes poker play is nothing new to Arenas who is known for bragging about his poker play with teammates and online. The New York Post reports that his exploits include:

* Playing for tens of thousands of dollars aboard the team jet.
* Dashing off to the locker room during halftime to play online poker.
* Using the $103 per diem that Wizards give him when the team travels as buy in money for the high stakes poker matches.
* Cleaning former teammate – and current Knick – Larry Hughes out of $17,000.
* Taking $57,000 from another teammate whom Arenas declined to identify, and $5,000 off Dallas forward Drew Gooden.
* Claiming at least 10 victories in poker tournaments among teammates.
* Boasting that he spends $5,000 per month on living expenses, but his poker earnings covered all the costs during the 2006 season.