Overview

• Prosecutors accuse Benko of shielding about €660,000 from creditors, including roughly €360,000 in rent prepayments for a Hungerburg villa and a €300,000 transfer to a relative.
• The proceeding is set for October 14–15 with eight witnesses listed, among them his mother and sister, as around 70 journalists attend.
• Benko has been in pre-trial detention since his January 2025 arrest, and Tuesday’s appearance is his first in public since then.
• Authorities describe this case as an opening move in roughly 14 domestic investigative strands, alongside related inquiries in Germany and Italy and a second indictment over a hidden safe with luxury items and cash that also involves his wife.
• The Signa collapse is considered Austria’s largest postwar corporate failure, with creditor claims reported in the tens of billions of euros.