Court reopens Benko case over 360,000-euro villa payment

Signa founder René Benko will face a retrial in Innsbruck on Tuesday over a 360,000-euro rent advance for a villa, ORF reported. The Supreme Court overturned his acquittal on that charge in July and sent the case back to the Innsbruck Regional Court.

Benko, who is in pre-trial detention, was sentenced to two years in prison in the first trial at the court in October 2025. The case involved two allegations: a 300,000-euro gift to his mother and the rent and operating-cost advance for the villa on Hungerburg.

The court convicted Benko over the gift but acquitted him over the rent payment. In July, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction on the first charge, making it his first final conviction, but overturned the partial acquittal on the second.

The Regional Court must now reconsider the rent-payment allegation and the overall sentence. Including the confirmed conviction, the alleged damage in the case amounts to about 660,000 euros. The applicable prison sentence ranges from one to 10 years.

The Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office argued that Benko intended to withhold money from his creditors or prevent them from being satisfied through the advance payment for the villa, which required renovation and was allegedly uninhabitable, as insolvency approached.

The Supreme Court said the payment had no usable value for creditors because a rent advance could not be realised by them. It said the reduction in assets occurred when the payment was made, even if the money might have been refunded if the lease was terminated.

The court also noted that the landlord had not demanded the advance. Benko had proposed it and supplied the corresponding draft lease. Whether the villa was habitable and how it was intended to be used did not determine whether he knew, or accepted, that the payment could disadvantage creditors. That question will be examined at the retrial.

Benko’s lawyer, Norbert Wess, told the Austrian Press Agency that he would seek a substantial reduction of the two-year sentence and would again argue for an acquittal over the rent payment. Wess said Benko could have terminated the lease and recovered the advance, meaning creditors could not have been harmed. He also maintained that the villa remained habitable despite a landslide and water damage and that the transaction had both value and consideration.

Benko has not testified at his previous Innsbruck trials beyond denying the allegations and criticising the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Wess said it had not yet been decided whether he would testify this time.

The hearing before the lay judges’ panel is scheduled to take place in the Regional Court’s main jury courtroom from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. A replacement date has been set for September 23, and seven witnesses have been summoned.