Ex-billionaire Benko convicted at Austrian retrial, sentence increased

VIENNA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - An Austrian ‌court found ​former property ​tycoon Rene Benko guilty on an additional insolvency fraud charge at a retrial on Tuesday, increasing his prison sentence to 30 ‌months from the original two years.

The case was the first to ⁠emerge from a wider criminal investigation into the collapse of the property group Benko founded. ‌Signa's failure in 2023 became ‌Austria's biggest post-war bankruptcy and left investors across Europe nursing losses.

A court in Innsbruck, Benko's home city, convicted him in October on one count ​of insolvency fraud over a €300,000 ($344,000) transfer to his mother in late 2023, when Signa was already in financial difficulty. The court found the transfer ⁠was intended to put the money beyond creditors' reach.

It acquitted him on a second count relating to ​an advance rent payment of about €360,000 for a house in Innsbruck that prosecutors said made no economic sense. After appeals from ​both sides, Austria's Supreme Court upheld the ‌conviction and ordered a retrial on the second count.

Benko pleaded not guilty, arguing that he thought his company could avoid ⁠bankruptcy when the payments were made.

"Regarding this part of the case that had to be retried, a panel comprising magistrates and a judge at the Innsbruck State Court ⁠found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to 30 months in prison," the court said ​in a statement, adding that the maximum possible sentence was 10 years.

Benko was convicted over the rent payment but acquitted over additional operating expenses for the house that had ‌also been paid in advance, the court said.

His time in custody since his arrest on January 23 of last year ‌would count towards his sentence and he remains in custody in Innsbruck, it added.

Benko ⁠was convicted of insolvency fraud ‌in a separate case ​in December and handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence.

($1 = 0.8723 euros)

(Reporting by Francois Murphy. Editing by Gareth Jones, Mark Potter and ‌Alexander Smith)

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