Former CBL chief executive Peter Alan Harris has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. (File photo)

The former chief executive of collapsed insurer CBL is fighting Serious Fraud Office charges.

Peter Alan Harris pleaded not guilty at the Auckland District Court on Tuesday morning, did not seek name suppression and elected for a jury trial.

The 64-year-old from Takapuna denied five charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, two charges of obtaining by deception and one charge of false accounting.

Court documents showed Harris was accused of fraudulently getting €12.5m paid to Alpha Insurance in about October 2014 from or through the National Bank of Samoa (NBS) "using a fraudulent strategem".

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The SFO alleged this included a scheme whereby CBL tried to avoid regulators' scrutiny, obscuring a series of transactions that made it seem the lender was Singapore's Federal Pacific Group.

And among other charges, the SFO alleged Harris authorised "any or all" of CBL payments totalling $13,250,640 in February 2018 to a Texas-based insurance company in breach of Reserve Bank requirements.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Peter Alan Harris appeared at the Auckland District Court on Tuesday (file photo).

The most serious charge, carrying a maximum 10-year jail term, related to allegations Harris intentionally omitted to disclose that CBL's €12.5m term deposit was collateral for a loan of the same amount which the NBS lent to Federal Pacific Group.

In an earlier statement, Harris said he was "very disappointed" the SFO had taken action against him but welcomed the chance to "finally bring the wider picture of the CBL saga before the Court" after the SFO and Reserve Bank investigated him.

Another accused man from Auckland entered not guilty pleas to three charges.

He was granted interim name suppression to February 27.

That man, a chartered accountant, was charged with authorising payments of more than $12million to United Specialty Insurance Company, in breach of Reserve Bank directions.

The SFO alleged that offence happened in February 2018.

He was also accused of intentionally failing to disclose that CBL's term deposit of €12.5million at Samoan bank was collateral for the €12.5m Euros which the same bank had lent to a Singapore financial services company.

He was further accused of fraudulently obtaining a benefit by failing to disclose that a term deposit and surety bond CBL issued for the Samoan bank was collateral for the €12.5m which the bank lent to the Singapore company.

The SFO alleged if these details had been properly disclosed, the term deposit would have attracted a higher risk charge.

The charges carry maximum jail terms of seven years, 10 years, and seven years respectively.

In one of these charges, the man with name suppression was accused of being "a secondary party" to the alleged $13.25m in payments to United Specialty Insurance Company.

CBL Corporation (CBLC) was put into liquidation in May after going into voluntary administration in February 2018.

"The charges against both defendants relate to their involvement in CBL Insurance Ltd," the SFO said in a statement after the men appeared in court.

"The provider of insurance and reinsurance was placed into liquidation in November 2018."

Both the accused men have been bailed.

Their next hearing will be a case review on April 30.