Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou admits libel, faces £500,000 bill Sir Stelios, who this month joined forces with Lonrho to launch a new African airline Fastjet, also made various defamatory allegations against Mr Manoudakis on his website in April and June 2011. In his apology, Sir Stelios admits he was wrong to have said that "Mr Manoudakis abused his corporate credit cards whilst in the employ of easyGroup between 2001 and 2006... and that he lied in court documents." He said that given the facts that emerged at October 2011"s hearing and responses "by Mr Manoudakis and other staff, I now fully accept that the process of using corporate credit cards to pay for personal expenses was widespread and open amongst my staff at the time and I have now seen evidence that these appear to have been recorded in the company books as such. In view of the latest information it is not fair to describe them as an abuse. I also accept that Mr Manoudakis did not lie in court documents. In the circumstances I apologise to Mr Manoudakis for the damage I have caused to his reputation and any offence and upset that I caused him. I have agreed to pay him damages for libel, and his legal costs. He has agreed to pay £5,001 damages but also faces a £500,000 legal bill, including the costs of the earlier High Court hearing. Sir Stelios, who has been involved in several acrimonious disputes with former employees, said yesterday: "I hope, like a good Greek citizen, he will pay his taxes on this amount to the Greek state - it clearly needs it at the moment." He added that, since the trial, he had "decided to cancel all corporate credit cards issued to staff and will never issue another one." Luke Harrison, at solicitor Debenhams Ottaway, which represented Mr Manoudakis, said: "Nick is pleased that the litigation between himself and Sir Stelios has finally concluded. The apology goes some way to restoring his professional reputation that was tarnished by the comments on easy.com.