Mom also helps

Despite bankruptcy: what Benko spends on luxury living

Mama Ingeborg helps out with the rent for the Innsbruck villa, but René Benko himself currently has to make do with a single cell.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH, APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER)

Villas, domestic staff, expensive hobbies, vacations - René Benko apparently continued to spend millions on his lavish lifestyle despite his bankruptcy. His mother also helps. Now in custody, Käsebrot & Co. have put an end to ostentation and luxury for the time being.

Some of the money René Benko spends on his lavish lifestyle can be found in the accounts of the collapsed Signa Group, which financed his life of luxury and ostentation until the very end. An average of 75,000 euros per month is spent on bodyguards alone. The salaries of the numerous house staff in the ostentatious villa in Innsbruck will even swallow up 1.5 million euros in 2023, including non-wage labor costs. And more than 360,000 euros per year had to be spent on the huge penthouse on Vienna's Fleischmarkt.

Benko's new home: he now has to sleep in a cell bed like this

(Bild: Falter/ Florian Klenk)

A toilet in the largest harbor in the country

(Bild: Falter/ Florian Klenk)

(Bild: Picturedesk für Print/ROLAND SCHLAGER / APA / picturedesk.com)

235,000 euros for "Chanel" designer pieces
In addition, there is a two-million-euro allowance for his wife and the expensive hobby of horse riding, or 150,000 euros for the horse "Cayo" alone. In order to be dressed in style for the many parties, the item for the luxury fashion brand Chanel also stands out: 225,000 euros.

All in all, monthly costs of more than one million euros. The Signa founder officially received 78 million euros gross for this in the peak phase of his real estate empire from 2015 to 2021.

This luxury villa in Ibiza also belongs to the Benko couple.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/picturedesk.com/Hans Klaus Techt, Rainer Fleckl)

Mother Ingeborg helps out with rent for swank villa from
In order to be able to maintain the very lavish lifestyle even after the personal insolvency and the huge company bankruptcy, mother Ingeborg Benko, a retired kindergarten teacher, is happy to help out. As the main beneficiary of the Laura Private Foundation, she pays the rent for the property in the Tyrolean capital. This amounts to an impressive 238,500 euros per month! And despite the garnishment to the subsistence level, witnesses say that many domestic workers are still employed in the Tyrolean property.

While the creditors continue to tremble for their money, René Benko, who was seized down to the subsistence level, apparently continued to have a good time. As reported, the enormous amount of cash and exquisite jewelry seized during the raids is evidence of this.

Now he is one of 1040 inmates in the largest prison
Now the game is over: René Benko is serving time with 1040 other prisoners in Josefstadt, the largest prison in the country. According to an investigation by the city newspaper "Falter", the structural and hygienic condition of the cells in Vienna's Landl even called a judicial commission into action.