Signa Investigation
Waffen, Haselsteiner: Third Indictment Against Benko
The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) has— as expected for weeks —filed a third indictment against René Benko: It concerns a five-million-euro guarantee provided to a foundation run by Hans Peter Haselsteiner. And an 80,000-euro hunting rifle.
René Benko is facing his third trial in his hometown of Innsbruck: The 49-year-old Signa founder, who has been in pretrial detention since January 23, 2025, has been facing another indictment from the WKStA since Friday. In the 27-page document, which is in the possession of the “Krone,” the financial juggler is accused of the crimes of aggravated fraud and fraudulent bankruptcy. The presumption of innocence applies.
The charge of aggravated fraud relates, in simple terms, to the following facts: On November 6, 2023, at the height of the Signa turmoil, have lured an additional 4.99 million euros for Signa Holding through Haselsteiner’s foundation and have vouched for this via a personal, notarized guarantee. The money was intended to rescue the Signa subsidiary Sportscheck, which nevertheless slid into bankruptcy shortly thereafter. From the WKStA’s perspective, Benko is alleged to have issued a “false guarantee.”
Benko vehemently denies this allegation. His attorney, Norbert Wess, considers the reasoning behind this charge to be “a mockery.” This is because a five-million-euro payment from the Haselsteiner Foundation was clearly overdue according to a contract. This was also confirmed by the then-reorganization administrator Arndt Geiwitz. The Haselsteiner Foundation thus paid a claim that should have been settled long ago.
The second allegation concerns an 80,000-euro hunting rifle: Benko is said to have withheld a Scheiring double-barreled rifle from his creditors and hidden it in “Villa N,” his former residence in Innsbruck-Igls. It remains to be seen whether an appeal will be filed against the indictment.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.