Austrian prosecutors bring new fraud case against Signa founder Benko

VIENNA, June 12 (Reuters) - Austrian prosecutors said on Friday they were bringing another case against former billionaire Rene Benko, who founded the now-collapsed Signa property group, this time for aggravated fraud and insolvency-related fraud.

It will be the third criminal case against Benko that the Central Prosecutors' Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) has brought to trial. He has been convicted twice of insolvency-related fraud, convictions against which he has appealed. He denies wrongdoing.

"The prosecutors' office accuses Benko of providing a false guarantee to an investor and/or representatives of a family trust and fraudulently causing the trust harm to the value of around €5 million euros ($6 million)," the WKStA said in a statement. 

At its peak, Signa controlled all or part of luxury properties including five-star hotels in Venice and Vienna and the Chrysler Building in New York, as well as high-end department-store chains such as Britain's Selfridges and Switzerland's Globus. Benko became a self-made billionaire.

Signa's collapse, which began with insolvency filings in late 2023, is the biggest bankruptcy in Austria's history and burned investors including blue-chip companies in neighbouring Germany and Switzerland.

The WKStA said on Friday it was filing the new case against Benko in his home city of Innsbruck, where his previous two trials were held. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison, it said.

The insolvency-related fraud component of the case relates to the accusation that Benko hid from creditors a hunting rifle worth €80,000 in the context of his insolvency as an entrepreneur and that of his company Signa Holding, the WKStA said in its statement.

The WKStA is investigating a range of possible crimes suspected of having been committed by Benko and others in relation to Signa's collapse. It said in April the total estimated damage caused in all crimes under investigation was €1.5 billion.

($1 = 0.8639 euro)

(Reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Matthew Lewis)