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Benko: moving out of one villa, rent for second villa

Will Benko's swank villa become a wellness hotel?

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

While René Benko is on remand in the Vienna-Josefstadt correctional facility, his family apparently has to vacate the property in Innsbruck-Igls. The "Krone" knows the background.

The family of insolvent Signa founder René Benko has apparently moved out of the swank villa in the Innsbruck district of Igls, which was once valued at 86 million euros. According to the German "Manager Magazin", the Laura Privatstiftung is said to be planning to convert the property into a wellness hotel. According to reports, the foundation is now looking for a hotel operator who could transform the 5,500-square-metre property into a wellness oasis. 

On Sunday, there was certainly a lot of activity around the estate. A horse transporter was also on site.

The property has been owned by the Laura Private Foundation since 2006, which is regarded as the Benkos' bunker. The main beneficiary is Benko's mother; she is said to have paid a considerable 238,500 euros per month in rent to allow the family of the country's most prominent U-prisoner to live there. Benko's trustee in bankruptcy, on the other hand, suspects that Benko's mother is nothing more than a kind of "straw mother", as has been reported several times. After all, the 74-year-old is a retired kindergarten teacher who would hardly have been in a position to transfer such assets to foundations in Innsbruck or Liechtenstein without the help of her son.

Pension provision on the brink of collapse
The Benkos have long since owned a second fashionable villa in Innsbruck. In another part of the city. According to Krone research, René Benko had made provisions shortly before the major collapse at the end of 2023. In October 2023, he had an advance rental payment of 360,000 euros organized via confidants and his sister in order to provide a 385-square-metre villa including a 1,000-square-metre garden and 181-square-metre terrace, which is also owned by a Benko foundation. The rental agreement in question, which at the time was in the name of Benko and his wife, literally states: "The tenants shall make an advance payment of four years' rent at the start of the rental period."

This all happened just a few weeks before the collapse of the Signa conglomerate. And just a few months before the personal insolvency of entrepreneur René Benko.

On April 23, 2024 - René Benko had been insolvent for around one and a half months at the time - Benko's insolvency administrator received a letter requesting that the failed entrepreneur Benko be released from the lease at the start of his insolvency.

The document, which is available to "Krone", states verbatim: Benko's wife had "already agreed to Mr. Benko's release from the tenancy and transfer of all rights and obligations arising from the tenancy to her."

In any case, it would come as no great surprise if the trustee in bankruptcy were to make new attempts to break into the Benkos' remaining foundations.