The Austrian entrepreneur and investor René Benko has to be used. A court in Vienna decided that.
Austrian authorities, whose commercial and real estate empire at times the German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof belonged, had arrested on Thursday in his villa in Innsbruck and transferred to a correctional facility in Vienna. In addition, according to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKSTA), house searches in Vienna, Tyrol and Vorarlberg were carried out. Assets, data carriers and documents were ensured.
The WKStA had applied for custody. Benko is suspected of having hidden assets towards creditors and authorities, it said. The reasons for the arrest are both a risk of crime as well as the risk of blackout.
In Germany, too, the former billionaire is being investigated. According to WKStA, it is about a suspicion of the so -called “project Franz” at the Bahnhofsplatz in Munich. Benko and another suspect are said to have made a foreign state fund to invest in the office, residential and commercial building with bonds. However, the proceeds of the bonds are said to have been used in a large extent, according to the investigators.
Requirements for Benko over 2.4 billion euros
In the course of rising interest rates, energy prices and construction costs, the nested company construct of Benko’s Signa Group collapsed. According to the insolvency administrator, the sum of the claims to Benko is around 2.4 billion euros. Benko claims to be unable to pay, but repeated reports about his luxurious lifestyle. The public prosecutor was on his heels: his phone calls were monitored, his news traffic was evaluated and his business partners and employees were interviewed.
According to WKStA, the investigation showed that Benko had hidden as part of his personal bankruptcy proceedings, that he actually had control over a family foundation. Benko is said to have also fake an invoice to withdraw three valuable firearms before access by creditors, insolvency administrators and authorities. Watches and other assets were also hidden or sold without adequate payment. Investors were deceived as part of a capital increase by means of a “money carousel”. So far, Benko’s lawyer has denied all allegations against his client.
The Italian judiciary recently issued an arrest warrant against Benko. The public prosecutor’s office of the Northern Italian city of Trento justified this with investigations into real estate speculation in the Trentino region and the neighboring region of South Tyrol. However, the arrest on Thursday is not related to the Italian arrest warrant.
The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is investigating Signa, among other things, for suspicion of subsidy fraud, money laundering or bankruptcy. The numerous subsidiaries are said to have transferred loans to each other in order to gloss over the economic situation. The investigation is directed against Benko and the managers of the suspected daughters. According to the authority, it is the largest investigation that has ever been managed there. With the current arrest in Austria, however, it is not in direct connection.
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