“We feel cheated”

250 million! New investigations in the Benko scandal

Signa founder Rene Benko(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption has expanded its investigation into René Benko. The Signa founder is alleged to have fraudulently induced an investor to grant him a 250-million-euro loan. The “Krone” knows the background.

It was only on March 12 that it became known that Austria’s most famous pretrial detainee at the Innsbruck Correctional Facility wishes to pursue a trade: René Benko has applied to prison authorities for a job in the carpentry shop, his associates confirmed. The general consensus: Until recently, Benko—together with his defense attorneys—had been “almost entirely occupied with reviewing the criminal case file.” However, since no new lines of investigation are currently apparent, the Signa founder is now able to pursue an occupation.

A fallacy, as it now turns out.

Investor Burdens Benko
According to “Krone” investigations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption expanded its investigation into the 48-year-old billionaire bankrupt on March 18, 2026, to include a highly explosive line of inquiry. The allegation: In September 2022, when investigators believe his Signa house of cards was already in serious danger of collapsing, Benko is said to have taken out a 250-million-euro loan for Signa Holding. From Ameria AG in Liechtenstein, which is part of the Arduini family’s business empire. The Arduinis had been on board the Signa Group as major investors since 2012. Family patriarch Riccardo Arduini had recently made serious allegations against Benko to the WKStA: Originally, it had been promised that the 250 million euros would be repaid within a few weeks. But then Benko repeatedly asked for extensions. “Of course we feel betrayed,” Arduini stated in his 48-page witness statement.

Signa founder Rene Benko(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

Investigators now believe that Benko, as the de facto leader, fraudulently lured out the 250 million euros. The defendant denies all charges; the presumption of innocence applies.

“Fully informed”
The financial juggler is also finding the air getting thinner—and the need for explanations growing—regarding the so-called “money carousel,”a capital increase by Signa Holding in the summer of 2023. Investigators have meticulously analyzed the documents seized during the raid. A recent interim report from the Soko Signa task force to the WKStA states verbatim: “From the (…) email correspondence dated June 16, 2023—just a few days before the planned capital measure was carried out—it appears that René Benko was fully informed about the liquidity situation at Signa Holding GmbH, Signa Prime Holding GmbH, Signa Development Selection Beteiligungs AG, and the Benko Family Private Foundation—that is, precisely those companies through whose accounts the payments related to the capital increase were processed on June 29, 2023 (“carousel”)!” From the investigators’ perspective, this finding is a key piece of the puzzle in proving the intent to defraud attributed to the bankrupt individual—which he denies.

In fact, Benko will likely soon have to deal more with uncomfortable questions from the public prosecutor’s office than with carpentry work.