Judiciary
Ex-billionaire Benko accused-one aspect of the Signa bankruptcy
René Benko has been in custody since January. The procedure related to the failed signa empire is highly complex. Now there is a first indictment.
The Economic and Corruption Prosecutor in Vienna for the first time has raised charges against the former real estate billionaire René Benko. The authority accuses Benko of having asset assets to the disadvantage of creditors as a sole proprietor. A corresponding indictment was brought in at the Innsbruck district court.
The accusation is on fraudulent crida, a term from Austrian criminal law that roughly corresponds to bankruptcy in Germany. The procedure is one of a total of twelve procedural strands around the failed Signa Group.
Specifically, the public prosecutor accuses the 48-year-old that “under the impression of increasing payment difficulties and a foreseeable opening of the bankruptcy” he still gave relatives 300,000 euros. In addition, Benko is said to have made an – economically and factually unacceptable – rental and operating cost advance payment for a rental property of 360,000 euros.
Date for process in the foreseeable future
Overall, the damage determined in this procedure is 660,000 euros. The authority said that the penal system was one to ten years of imprisonment.
Since the 48-year-old has been in custody since January, an acceleration requirement applies to the judiciary, said a spokeswoman for the prosecution. So the main procedure could soon be scheduled by the district court.
Total damage of 300 million euros
In the Benko case, the judiciary obviously pulled consequences from the extremely lengthy corruption investigation against Austria’s ex-finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and initially brought a partial aspect for charges.
In the Grasser case, it took seven years from the start of the investigation to the indictment in the corruption affair around the BUWOG residential area, and for another nine years passed to a final judgment. Due to this long period of proceedings, the originally imposed prison sentence due to infidelity from the Supreme Court was halved for four years.
According to the public prosecutor, the entire Signa process complex is accused of around a dozen and investigated against two associations. According to the judiciary, the total damage determined so far amounts to 300 million euros. With 1500 order numbers so far – each document or even file volumes – the signa procedure is extremely extensive, it said. There is suspicion of infidelity and severe fraud in the room. Benko denies the allegations.
An early life in the high society
Benko, who grew up in Innsbruck, had built up a nested company network in the low interest rate phase. The group he founded in 1999, which soon operated as Signa, acquired numerous real estate, including the Chrysler Building in New York.
Benko had made it to the heavy man thanks to a pronounced sense of shops and a large negotiating skills. In his heyday, his assets were estimated at several billion euros. The Tyrolean was a popular guest and host in the high society in Austria.
In retrospect, the entry of the Signa in stationary trade is a strategic mistake that significantly led to the company’s decline. Benko invested, for example, in the Galeria goods center group, the Luxury department store KaDeWe and the Hamburg Elbtower project. The real estate division, who was booming for years, was unable to compensate for the losses of the department stores. In addition to internal problems, Signa was finally brought down from rising interest rates, energy prices and construction costs.
dpa
Source: Stern
