Court case: Two and a half years in prison for René Benko
René Benko has been convicted again for damaging creditors. In the partially reopened trial, the Innsbruck Regional Court increased his prison sentence to two and a half years.
Innsbruck – Austrian investor René Benko has been sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year prison term in a retried court case. The Landesgericht Innsbruck found that the 49-year-old had harmed his creditors. Benko had already been sentenced to two years' imprisonment in October 2025 for the same accusations, but he was acquitted in one aspect.
However, the Supreme Court of Austria (OGH) overturned this acquittal, necessitating a new trial and a reevaluation of the sentence. At the heart of the matter was the allegation that Benko paid €360,000 in advance for a rental property for an additional residence while he was on the brink of bankruptcy in autumn 2023. The villa was initially uninhabitable due to a landslide, yet Benko had paid for four years' rent and operating costs in advance.
The property belongs to a company named after Benko's daughter within the Laura private foundation. Prosecutors deemed the advance payment economically and factually unjustifiable, claiming the funds originated from the Laura private foundation and returned there through a money wheel.
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