Austria arrests property tycoon Benko, suspected of trying to hide assets

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria has arrested Rene Benko, the founder of fallen property group Signa, on suspicion of trying to hide assets from insolvency administrators and creditors, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Benko, 47, was arrested at his villa in Innsbruck early on Thursday, Austrian media reported.

His lawyer, Norbert Wess, did not reply to Reuters requests for comment on the allegations. He said a court would need to decide within 48 hours whether his client should remain in custody. Benko was transferred from Innsbruck to a Vienna jail, arriving at 5.10 p.m. (1610 GMT), a jail spokesperson said.

Benko has previously denied allegations made against him.

A self-made billionaire, Benko tapped low interest rates to rapidly expand his business, acquiring stakes in prestigious properties from Britain's Selfridges department stores to the Chrysler Building in New York.

When the tide turned, Signa became the biggest casualty of Europe's property downturn and Benko went bankrupt. Key parts of his empire entered insolvency proceedings or liquidation, with administrators trying to salvage what they could of creditors' investments.

Austria's Central Prosecutors' Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) said there was a risk of Benko committing a crime, and that he was suspected of secretly controlling and being the beneficiary of a trust named after his daughter.

"He thus concealed assets and kept assets in the trust beyond the reach of the authorities, administrators and creditors," the WKStA said in a statement which also revealed a new investigation of Benko in Germany.

Noting it had formed a joint investigation team over Signa with prosecutors in Berlin and Munich, the WKStA said it had opened a fraud probe into Benko and an unnamed person.

They are suspected of inducing managers of a foreign sovereign wealth fund to invest in a "Project Franz" in Munich through bonds. Much of the investment was used for another purpose, it said.

Later, the WKStA said several locations had been raided in the states of Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna in connection with three investigations including the one relating to the Munich probe and a long-standing fraud case. Items seized included documents and data storage devices.

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The Laura trust under scrutiny controls a range of expensive assets including the Innsbruck villa. Its beneficiaries include Benko's wife and children, shielding the assets from his insolvency proceedings.

Prosecutors said "the accused is suspected of having concealed assets such as high-priced weapons, watches and other items or sold them without adequate compensation, thereby preventing or reducing the satisfaction of creditors."

Benko is suspected of drawing up a receipt after the fact and falsifying evidence to keep three highly valuable guns beyond the reach of authorities and creditors, they said.

The anti-corruption office has various probes underway relating to Signa and Benko. Last April it opened an investigation into the entrepreneur on suspicion of fraud.

A judge in Italy has also ordered the arrest of Benko and eight others as part of a probe into alleged corruption of politicians in that country. Afterwards, Austrian authorities said they were not planning to arrest him.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; editing by Dave Graham, Kirsten Donovan, Jason Neely and David Evans)