Austria's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld ex-billionaire Rene Benko's first of two convictions for insolvency-related fraud, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison, but ordered a retrial on a second count on which he had been found not guilty.
The conviction related to a €300,000 ($342,400) transfer that was ostensibly a gift to Benko's mother made in late 2023 when his Signa property group was already in financial difficulty. Prosecutors said it was an attempt to keep the money from creditors.
While the court upheld the conviction related to that payment, leaving Benko no further recourse for appeal, it overturned a ruling of not guilty at the same trial on a second count relating to €360,000 in various up-front rent and other payments for a house in Innsbruck, ordering a retrial.
Benko, 49, who did not attend the appeal hearing, denies all wrongdoing.
At its peak, Signa controlled all or part of luxury properties including five-star hotels in Venice and Vienna and the Chrysler Building in New York, 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 and burned investors including blue-chip companies in neighbouring Germany and Switzerland.
($1 = 0.8761 euros)
