Austrian investor René Benko has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in a partially re-opened trial.
The District Court in Innsbruck found it proven that Benko harmed his creditors by paying a €360,000 prepayment for a villa in Innsbruck, despite being close to bankruptcy. Benko contested the allegations, arguing that he was convinced the restructuring of his Signa Group would succeed.
This conviction follows a previous judgment: back in October 2025, Benko had been sentenced to two years for similar charges. Although he received an acquittal in part of that case, the Supreme Court (OGH) subsequently overturned that acquittal, necessitating a new hearing during which the severity of the sentence had to be reassessed. The potential legal range for the offense is between one and ten years of imprisonment.
Currently, Benko is in pre-trial detention, having been held since January 2025. Signa Holding was long regarded as Austria’s largest real estate and trade company. The company filed for insolvency in November 2023 with the Vienna Commercial Court, initially requesting a restructuring process under self-administration, but this was subsequently converted into a bankruptcy procedure in April 2024.
