Austrian court convicts fallen property tycoon Benko of aggravated fraud

An Austrian court convicted fallen property tycoon Rene Benko on Thursday of aggravated fraud and sentenced him to a further two years in prison, ‌just three weeks after he was released to house arrest to serve out a previous conviction. The trial in Benko's home city of Innsbruck was the third case brought against the 49-year-old since his arrest in January last year. All are linked to ‌an ongoing investigation into possible crimes connected to the collapse of the Signa property group he founded.

Benko was acquitted on ‌Thursday of insolvency-related fraud, the offence he was found guilty of in the previous trials. Neither the defence nor prosecution said whether they would appeal his conviction. They have three working days to decide.

Benko's lawyer Norbert Wess said as long as there was the possibility to appeal, Benko would remain ⁠under ​house arrest with an ankle monitor, ⁠and what happened after that was unclear. At its peak, Signa owned or held stakes in luxury properties including five-star hotels in Venice and Vienna ⁠and New York's Chrysler Building, as well as high-end department store chains such as Britain's Selfridges and Switzerland's Globus. Benko became a self-made billionaire.

Signa's ​collapse, which began with insolvency filings in late 2023, is the biggest bankruptcy in Austria's history. It inflicted heavy ⁠losses on investors, including wealthy individuals and blue-chip companies in neighbouring Germany and Switzerland. This week's trial centred on a notarised guarantee worth about €5 million ($5.6 million) that ⁠Benko ​gave to Austrian industrialist Hans Peter Haselsteiner's family trust in November 2023. The guarantee was linked to an investment in Signa that Benko needed to keep sporting goods retailer SportScheck afloat.

SportScheck filed for insolvency within a month. The guarantee was ⁠patently false and providing it was "the dumbest thing you could do", presiding Judge Norbert Hofer said as he explained the verdict, ⁠while acknowledging that Benko ⁠had been working tirelessly at the time to save his life's work.

"Of course, he very much hoped the outcome would be different. There's no hiding that.... He's definitely disappointed," Benko's lawyer Wess ‌told reporters after ‌the ruling. ($1 = 0.8880 euros)