Austrian property mogul René Benko has been arrested following accusations from Vienna’s criminal prosecutors of providing misleading statements during the insolvency process of his Signa property group, allegedly attempting to misappropriate assets.
Benko was taken into custody on Thursday due to concerns that he might flee or tamper with evidence. Authorities also assert that he forged a document. In a separate matter, Italian police issued an arrest warrant for him in December based on alleged business misconduct in the South Tyrol region. Viennese prosecutors revealed they have collaborated with counterparts in Berlin and Munich to expedite cross-border investigations.
This arrest comes over a year after the collapse of Benko’s Signa conglomerate, which left various investors, including insurance companies and banks in Austria and Germany, facing considerable financial losses amounting to billions of euros.
Prosecutors contend that Benko is the ultimate beneficial owner of a family foundation based in Innsbruck, named after his daughter Laura. Reports indicated that a Signa Group entity transferred more than €300 million to two organizations controlled by this foundation before the bankruptcy.
Austrian authorities allege that Benko failed to disclose his control over the Laura Foundation during his personal insolvency proceedings. This omission allegedly concealed assets and prevented law enforcement, the insolvency administrator, and creditors from accessing wealth held in the foundation, supported by evidence collected during a lengthy investigation that involved surveillance.
Additionally, Benko is accused of fabricating evidence by producing a backdated invoice to retain three valuable firearms from authorities’ oversight.
Prosecutors further claim that he misled Signa shareholders into participating in a capital increase by falsely suggesting that the family foundation would also contribute funds. He allegedly disguised external investors’ payments as his own by orchestrating a complicated web of financial transfers among various legal entities.
Further allegations include Benko selling Villa Eden Gardone, a luxurious property near Lake Garda, to a Liechtenstein-based foundation in a purportedly fraudulent transaction deemed as potential embezzlement. He is also accused of deceiving a foreign sovereign wealth fund into investing in a real estate project adjacent to Munich’s main railway station, with prosecutors claiming that most of this funding was misappropriated for unrelated purposes.
A representative for Benko has not yet provided a response to these claims.
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