Ex-Milliardär vor Gericht: Urteil: Zweieinhalb Jahre Haft für René Benko
Vor rund einem Jahr wurde der österreichische Investor wegen Schädigung seiner Gläubiger verurteilt. Das Verfahren musste in Teilen wiederholt werden. Das Strafmaß ist erhöht worden.
Former billionaire René Benko has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison by the Innsbruck Regional Court. The court found that the 49-year-old Austrian investor harmed his creditors by making a €360,000 advance payment for rent on a property in Innsbruck, despite his Signa company's finances being already precarious. Benko had previously been sentenced to 2 years in prison in October 2025 for the same alleged misconduct, which was later overturned by the Constitutional Court.
The appellate trial now determined the severity of the punishment, which could have been anywhere between 1 to 10 years. The offense involved the alleged damage to creditors through the advance payment of rent for another residence while Benko was close to insolvency. Benko has denied the accusations, convinced that the rehabilitation of his Signa group would succeed at the time.
He had been in custody since January 2025, having amassed a billion-dollar empire through his real estate and trade empire, Signa. High interest rates, construction costs, and risky acquisitions such as Karstadt and Kaufhof led to the insolvency of Signa. Investigations against Benko and other Signa executives are ongoing in multiple threads.
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