The billionaire fallen in disgrace Rene Benko, once one of the richest people in Europe, was sentenced to prison in a file that shook Austria
Rene Benko, photographed on October 15, 2025 at the entrance to the courtroom, photo: Kerstin Joenson / AFP / Profimedia Images
An Austrian court found guilty on Wednesday the former real estate tycoon Rene Benko of an accusation of insolvency fraud, his first criminal conviction regarding the collapse of his real estate group Signa, but paid for the second accusation.
The court in his hometown, Innsbruck, sentenced to two years in prison for the transfer of 300,000 euros to his mother, considering that the gesture was an attempt to evade money from creditors.
Benko, 48, became a billionaire after lifting Sign from scratch to become one of the largest players in the European real estate market, with offices in Vienna, Innsbruck, Munich, Dusseldorf, Luxembourg, Zurich, Bolzano, Berlin and Hamburg.
Benko, who during his glory period had an estimated fortune by the Bloomberg agency to 6 billion euros, extended massively Signa in a period when the low rates of reference interest allowed to take loans under advantageous conditions.
But as the reference interest rates have increased since 2020 to keep the galloping inflation under control, Signa problems have multiplied and the company went into insolvency in 2023.
Signa became the biggest victim of building prices in real estate in several countries in Europe, including Germany, the largest European economy, and her creditors are trying to save what they can. Benko also stated personal bankruptcy in March 2023.
Prosecutors carry out another extensive investigation into possible crimes committed, estimating the total damage to about 300 million euros.
The file in which Rene Benko was convicted
The trial ended on Wednesday was focused only on a fraction of that amount-about 660,000 euros in total-which the prosecutors claimed that Benko was hijacked by trying to shelter from the creditors, in the context of his own insolvency as an entrepreneur.
Benko pleaded innocent, and his lawyer, Norbert Wess, told the court that the accusations are “absurd.”
Benko is under preventive arrest since its arrest in January.
Judge Andrea Wegscheider has stated, when reading the verdict, that the period already spent in arrest will be deduced from the punishment.
So far, prosecutors have opened another case against Benko against Benko to reach court, also for alleged insolvency fraud.
The greatest bankruptcy in Austria after World War II
The case focused on two main amounts, including rents paid in advance and other payments worth about 360,000 euros in 2023 – the year in which the main divisions of Signa went into insolvency – for an Innsbruck house. The prosecutors claimed that the payments did not make sense, because the building needed repairs and was uninhabitable at that time.
The 300,000 euros left were, apparently, a gift for his mother.
Although much of the discussions during the trial were focused on the rental contract and on the state of the house, the court considered that there are too many uncertainties for a conviction in relation to that end of the prosecution.
Lawyer Wess said the payments had nothing irregular and that Benko moved to the house with his family earlier than the prosecutors supported.
The Signa collapse was the largest bankruptcy in Austria since World War II.
Signa creditors, including top companies such as Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Julius Baer and Raiffeisen Bank International, have submitted applications for billions of euros against the group, from the time of its collapse.
