Innsbruck — An Austrian court found former property billionaire Rene Benko guilty of one count of insolvency-related fraud on Wednesday, his first criminal conviction related to the collapse of his real estate group Signa, but cleared him on a second count.
The court, in his home city of Innsbruck, handed him a two-year prison sentence over a transfer of €300,000 to his mother, ruling that it was an attempt to keep the money from creditors.
Signa became the biggest casualty of Europe’s property downturn when some of its main units filed for insolvency in 2023. Prosecutors are still conducting a sprawling investigation into possible crimes committed and estimate the related damage caused at about €300m.
This week’s case focused…