Christopher Donnachie, one of the directors of the Telecheck Group, which collapsed in Bermuda in 1993, has been ordered to pay a costs of $808,653 to a Bahamas bank from which he tried to extort money.

The costs were awarded in the Bahamas Supreme Court against Mr. Donnachie and his Panama-registered company Pandon Technology on December 1, the Internet newsletter Inside Bermuda reported yesterday.

The court awarded the costs in Decemberto Bahamian banking group Fidelity Bank and International Trust Ltd. after the bank won a judgment in 2002 against Mr. Donnachie. Damages for that judgment have not been set.

Miami-based Inside Bermuda reported that the bank claimed that Mr. Donnachie placed a blocking device in its computer before resigning as a computer programmer, activated it after he left, thus causing the system to crash. He then demanded money to unblock it, saying Pandon owned the intellectual property.

The bank said the block caused significant financial losses for its credit card business and incurred expenses in restoring the database.

Mr. Donnachie left Bermuda after the collapse of the Telecheck Group in 1993. Telecheck operated as a cheque clearing and credit checking company while an affiliated business, Televest, offered savers superior rates of interest on their purchases of preferred shares.

The group collapsed owing an estimated $14 million amid allegations that it was operating as a Ponzi scheme and that its directors were self-dealing. Many Televest investors were small depositors, some of whom had put their life savings with the company.

The liquidation of the companies ended in 2001 with creditors getting back a total of $4,415,470.34 or 32 percent of the group?s liabilities.