Austrian ex-billionaire Benko found guilty of insolvency fraud at retrial

​An Austrian court on Tuesday found ​former property tycoon ‌Rene Benko ​guilty on an additional insolvency fraud charge at a retrial, increasing his prison sentence to 30 ‌months from the original two years.

The case is the first to emerge from a wider criminal investigation into the collapse of the Signa property ‌group Benko founded, whose failure in late 2023 became Austria's biggest post-war ‌bankruptcy and left investors across Europe nursing losses. A court in Innsbruck, Benko's home city, convicted him in October on one count of insolvency fraud over a €300,000 ($344,000) transfer to ⁠his ​mother in late ⁠2023, when Signa was already in financial difficulty. The court found the transfer was intended ⁠to put the money beyond creditors' reach.

It acquitted him on a second ​count relating to an advance rent payment of about €360,000 for a ⁠house in Innsbruck that prosecutors said made no economic sense. After appeals from both sides, ⁠Austria's ​Supreme Court upheld the conviction and ordered a retrial on the second count. At the end of the one-day retrial, Benko was ⁠found guilty, the court said in a statement, adding that he was convicted ⁠over the rent ⁠payment but acquitted over additional operating expenses for the house that had also been paid in advance.

($1 = 0.8723 ‌euros)