WKStA files further charges against René Benko: Fraud and fraudulent bankruptcy in the Signa complex

At the heart of the first charge is an allegedly untrue guarantee declaration. Benko is said to have used it to induce authorized representatives of the Haselsteiner Family Private Foundation to transfer approximately 3.3 million euros to Signa Holding GmbH. In the guarantee declaration, Benko is said to have promised the repayment of a total of approximately five million euros by 30 June 2024 at the latest – a promise that was never fulfilled. The Haselsteiner Family Private Foundation was thereby damaged by the full amount, according to the indictment. In return, Signa Holding GmbH and another company are said to have been unlawfully enriched.

In addition, the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) accuses him of having hidden a hunting rifle worth 80,000 euros from creditors in the course of his insolvency. Another charge concerns the allegation of fraudulent bankruptcy. Specifically, it involves a hunting rifle worth 80,000 euros that Benko is alleged to have concealed. Benko is said to have prevented or diminished the satisfaction of creditor claims in the course of the insolvency of Signa Holding GmbH and his personal insolvency as a sole proprietor.

Benko is said to have contributed to this act by giving untruthful testimony in court that he had drafted the document and that the million-euro payment had in fact been intended as "additional maintenance." At the same time, he is said to have prevented the foundation from reclaiming a further 1.7 million euros. René Benko is alleged to have defrauded the private foundation of Hans Peter Haselsteiner of approximately five million euros using a false guarantee declaration.

Reaction of the defense

The defense rejects the charges. "We cannot understand the charges in the indictment even from a legal perspective. The claim vis-à-vis the Haselsteiner Private Foundation was already overdue before the guarantee declaration was issued, and the hunting rifle in question was never at any point the property of Mr. René Benko," defense counsel Norbert Wess said in a statement.

In addition, the WKStA confirmed a new line of investigation. There is a suspicion of attempted aggravated fraud in civil proceedings – this time against a family member of Benko as well as against Benko himself as an accomplice. Specifically, it concerns a payment of two million euros that Benko had transferred to the family member in January 2023. The family member is said to have attempted before the Innsbruck Regional Court to deceive the presiding judge in order to fend off a claim for repayment. The aim is said to have been to damage Benko's insolvency estate by two million euros. To prevent this money from flowing back to the creditors, the family member is said to have falsely claimed in court that it was a maintenance payment and not a gift. As evidence, she is said to have submitted a document incorrect in content – a so-called "memorandum."

Detention situation and background of the investigations

With this charge, the WKStA concludes the investigations into the "Fraud by untruthful guarantee" procedural strand. The WKStA has already filed two further indictments against the real estate investor in this complex. Investigations into additional charges are still ongoing. The sentencing range for the current indictment is one to ten years' imprisonment.

Benko, the 49-year-old, has already been in pretrial detention for 18 months. The pretrial detention had been extended by the Vienna Regional Court until 23 February, as was announced on Tuesday, 23 December. Benko's lawyer had applied for the pretrial detention to be ended after now eleven months. The court justified the extension with the continuing urgent suspicion of having committed the offense and the risk of further crimes, and rejected the objection that the detention was no longer proportionate.

In the preliminary proceedings, Benko had contested all charges. The former billionaire has already been convicted in two similar trials. The judgments are not yet final.

The background to the proceedings is the collapse of the Signa Group, which began in autumn 2023 amid massively rising interest rates and plummeting real estate valuations. At the end of 2023, Signa Prime and Signa Development filed for restructuring proceedings; at the end of November 2023, Signa Holding filed a restructuring application with the Vienna Commercial Court. In April 2024, Signa Holding went into bankruptcy; the proceedings were concluded at the end of July 2024. At the beginning of November, the OGH (Supreme Court of Justice) ordered, at the request of the Finanzprokuratur, the switch to ordinary bankruptcy proceedings for Signa Prime. The Signa subsidiary Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof was sold in June 2024 to a consortium around NRDC and BB Kapital. In September 2024, the Thai Central Group took over the entire operating business of Globus; the department store at Bellevue in Zurich was reopened in November 2024 after renovation by PSP Swiss Property, followed by the new building in Basel in October 2025.

The indictment must also be seen against the backdrop of the insolvency of the Laura Private Foundation. The Laura Private Foundation filed for insolvency at the Innsbruck Regional Court on 11 March 2026 because it could no longer meet payment obligations arising from two arbitral awards. The private foundation holds various real estate, including a villa in Innsbruck where Benko lived with his family until his arrest, as well as residential buildings in Innsbruck and the Chalet N in Lech am Arlberg. The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office attributes the Laura Private Foundation to Benko, which he disputes. Two sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East had obtained the arbitral awards before a Swiss arbitral tribunal after their loans were lost following the Signa collapse. In total, the complex involves approximately one billion euros, with estimated remaining assets of 300 to 400 million euros.