Austrian ex-billionaire Benko found guilty of insolvency fraud at retrial

VIENNA, Sept 22 - An Austrian court on Tuesday found former property tycoon Rene Benko guilty on an additional insolvency fraud charge at a retrial, increasing his prison sentence to 30 months from the original two years.

The case is the first to emerge from a wider criminal investigation into the collapse of the Signa property group Benko founded, whose failure in late 2023 became Austria's biggest post-war bankruptcy and left investors across Europe nursing losses.

A court in Innsbruck, Benko's home city, convicted him in October on one count of insolvency fraud over a €300,000 ($344,000) transfer to his mother in late 2023, when Signa was already in financial difficulty. The court found the transfer was intended to put the money beyond creditors' reach.

It acquitted him on a second count relating to an advance rent payment of about €360,000 for a house in Innsbruck that prosecutors said made no economic sense. After appeals from both sides, Austria's Supreme Court upheld the conviction and ordered a retrial on the second count.

At the end of the one-day retrial, Benko was found guilty, the court said in a statement, adding that he was convicted over the rent payment but acquitted over additional operating expenses for the house that had also been paid in advance. REUTERS