Five million swindled: Signa founder Benko sentenced to another two years in prison for fraud

The Innsbruck regional court imposed an additional penalty on former billionaire René Benko. However, the founder of the real estate and trading group Signa is acquitted on a second charge.

The Austrian real estate entrepreneur René Benko has been convicted of serious fraud in a new trial. The Innsbruck regional court considered it proven that the founder of the Signa Group had damaged an investor by five million euros, as the newspaper “Der Standard” reported. The verdict is not yet final.

According to “Standard” and the Austrian news agency APA, the ex-billionaire received an additional sentence of two years. This extends a previous sentence of two and a half years in prison, which was imposed in a previous trial for damaging creditors.

The court followed the prosecution's statement that Benko defrauded the private foundation of the industrialist Hans Peter Haselsteiner by giving the investor a "false guarantee" to settle the million-dollar sum. The founder of the real estate and trading group Signa and the ex-head of the construction group Strabag had close business ties for years.

From the perspective of the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA), Benko urgently needed the money for the sports trading subsidiary Sportscheck at the beginning of November 2023. It was only Benko's guarantee that prompted Haselsteiner's private foundation to donate a sum of millions. The guarantee statement was purely a deception and Benko never seriously intended to pay Haselsteiner back, the senior public prosecutor argued.

The 49-year-old defendant denied the allegations. As a witness, Haselsteiner, however, emphasized the importance of the guarantee. He was asked for five million euros - and he would not have made it available without Benko's promise, he explained.

The Signa founder was acquitted on a second charge. The court did not consider it proven that he had hidden a luxury hunting rifle worth 80,000 euros from creditors. Benko was previously sentenced to 30 months in prison in September for damaging creditors. The Innsbruck regional court ruled that he had paid an advance on rent costs of 360,000 euros for a property in Innsbruck, even though his Signa company empire was already very critical.

Benko is also being investigated in Germany

Benko appeared at his most recent trial wearing an ankle bracelet. He is in custody, but he has been allowed to spend it in a private apartment since mid-October. Further investigations against Benko surrounding the collapse of the Signa Group are still ongoing in Austria and other countries - including Germany.

Over the course of around 20 years, Benko had expanded the Signa Group into a well-known brand for real estate in exclusive inner-city locations. The entry into stationary retail at the German department store chains Kaufhof and Karstadt, rising interest rates, lost trust from the banks and management errors ultimately drove Signa into bankruptcy.