
An additional two years in prison for false payment guarantees in favor of the Haselsteiner Foundation
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René Benko had already been sentenced to two and a half years in prison in the second instance in September 2026. The current proceedings concerned a payment guarantee for Hans-Peter Haselsteiner's private foundation of five million euros. Both were closely linked in business until the demise of the Signa Group.
Dusseldorf. The former real estate entrepreneur René Benko was found guilty in another trial before the Innsbruck regional court. The court formed a total prison sentence consisting of that for the current case and the original two and a half years to which Benko was sentenced in the second instance in September 2026. A total of two more years of imprisonment is added. The verdict is not yet final.
In this case, Benko was charged with fraud. It was about a payment guarantee for a foundation, which Benko is said to have issued against his better judgment and thus obtained payments. The damage therefore amounts to five million euros. This is about the foundation of the billionaire and former Strabag boss Hans-Peter Haselsteiner. Haselsteiner and Benko were closely linked in business until the Signa Group went under.
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.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The judgment is likely to be appealed and is currently not final.
Likely · Within weeks

The Innsbruck regional court sentenced René Benko to two years of additional imprisonment for serious fraud of five million euros. The sentence expands an existing two and a half year prison sentence. The judgment is not final. A second charge was dropped.

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