Creditors harmed Benko sentenced again - acquittal for wife
The defense described the charges against René Benko as "hocus pocus".
Image: dpa
According to the public prosecutor's office, Nathalie Benko had procured a safe to hide money and valuables from creditors.
Image: dpa
According to the defense, the Benko couple saw each other for the first time since René Benko's imprisonment began in January 2025.
Image: dpa
The defense described the charges against René Benko as "hocus pocus".
Image: dpa
According to the public prosecutor's office, Nathalie Benko had procured a safe to hide money and valuables from creditors.
Image: dpa
According to the defense, the Benko couple saw each other for the first time since René Benko's imprisonment began in January 2025.
Image: dpa
The court is convinced that René Benko has harmed his creditors. A safe was at the center of the trial. This time the verdict against the 48-year-old was relatively lenient.
10.12.2025, 18:13
dpa
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- Former real estate investor René Benko has been sentenced for the second time for harming his creditors - and has received a comparatively lenient sentence.
- The Innsbruck Regional Court handed down a suspended sentence of 15 months. Benko's wife was acquitted.
- The holding company of the convoluted real estate and retail group Signa slipped into insolvency in November 2023. Benko has been in custody since January 2025.
- Further charges against the ex-billionaire are considered certain.
Austrian ex-billionaire René Benko has been convicted for the second time of harming his creditors. The Innsbruck Regional Court imposed a suspended sentence of 15 months on the founder of the Signa real estate and trading empire. His wife Nathalie Benko, who was also charged, was acquitted.
The court considered it to be only partially proven that René Benko had withdrawn valuable watches from the grasp of his creditors. In Austria, fraudulent crida is punishable by up to ten years in prison, depending on the amount of damage.
Defense lawyer considered the charges to be "hocus pocus"
René Benko had already been sentenced to two years in prison for the same offense in October. As soon as this first judgement becomes legally binding, the two sentences will be combined to form a total sentence. However, the two sentences will not simply be added together.
At the beginning of the trial, the defense tried to tear the charges apart. According to the investor's lawyer, Norbert Wess, the prosecution's accusation was unsubstantiated and basically "hocus pocus". The investigation was "incredibly one-sided", said Nathalie Benko's lawyer, Michael Hohenauer. There were plausible explanations for the events.
The public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, had stated that the couple had deposited the money and eleven expensive watches in a safe around the time of Benko's insolvency as sole traders. The purchase of the safe, which was placed with relatives of the wife, had been organized by 42-year-old Nathalie Benko. She had therefore contributed to the crime and thus to the damage to the creditors, the prosecution said. A former security employee of the Benkos had told the investigators about the safe.
Christmas photos do not show expensive watches as gifts
According to the public prosecutor's office, Benko's statement that he had already given four watches each to his two sons, then aged six and eleven, for Christmas 2021 was not credible. Christmas photos from 2021 show gifts appropriate to the age of the children, said the chief prosecutor. "Expensive watches and cufflinks were not included." It should also be asked why the money and items were not kept in the Benkos' highly secured villa.
The judge, on the other hand, said that many things were theoretically possible.
The defense argued that gifts of watches on this scale were not unusual among very wealthy people. Benko was at the height of his success at the time.
The insolvency administrator Andreas Grabenweger pointed out in his testimony that there had been inconsistencies in René Benko's list of assets. It had never happened to him before that a debtor declared to have zero cash. That alone made him suspicious, said Grabenweger. Press reports had also mentioned the investor's valuable watch collection. Instead, however, Benko had only presented him with three watches.
Further charges against René Benko are considered certain
The two proceedings are only a small part of the allegations being investigated by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA). Further charges are considered certain. The holding company of the convoluted real estate and retail group Signa slipped into insolvency in November 2023. Benko has been in custody since January 2025.