Latest news with #ViennaRegionalCourt
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Austrian real-estate tycoon Benko must remain in custody, court rules
A court in Vienna ruled Monday that Austrian former real-estate investor René Benko, who is under investigation for fraud, must remain in pre-trial detention. Benko, 47, must remain in custody for at least another two months. The founder of the insolvent real estate and trading group Signa had applied for his release. However, the Vienna Regional Court refused this. The court stated that there was still strong suspicion and a risk of re-offending. He was detained in January and held in custody in Vienna. The Austrian Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) accuses the entrepreneur of concealing his personal assets in connection with the fall of his real-estate holding. He is suspected of embezzlement, fraud and bankruptcy. Investigators assume that Benko tricked investors into making contributions by pretending that a Benko family foundation would also participate in a Signa capital increase. In reality, however, they say, Benko channelled investors' money through a 'money carousel' and passed it off as his own contribution. According to the WKStA, Benko is also said to have hidden assets from authorities, creditors and insolvency administrators. The entrepreneur is also under investigation in Germany, Italy and Liechtenstein. His lawyer has so far rejected the accusations against Benko. Benko had built up a convoluted network of companies during the low-interest phase. He invested in Germany's Galeria department store group, the Berlin luxury department store KaDeWe and the Elbtower project in Hamburg. In addition to internal group problems, Signa was brought down by rising interest rates, energy prices and construction costs.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Yahoo
Court convicts 19-year-old in Taylor Swift concert terror probe
The first trial resulting from investigations into alleged Islamist plans for an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year reached its verdict on Monday. A 19-year-old Iraqi man associated with the main suspect was convicted by the Vienna Regional Court of propagandizing for the terrorist militia Islamic State. He received a two-year prison sentence – one and a half years of which were suspended – for participating in a terrorist group and criminal organization. The young man was not accused of any actual involvement in the alleged plot against the US superstar's Vienna shows in August 2024. However, the public prosecutor's office accused him of distributing criminal content on social networks in order to recruit new Islamic State supporters. The Iraqi man came to the attention of the Austrian authorities as a result of the investigations into the now 20-year-old main suspect, who was arrested shortly before the planned concerts were due to take place. He is alleged to have plotted a suicide attack on behalf of the Islamic State at one of the three planned Swift concerts in Vienna. He is currently in pre-trial detention. The public prosecutor is also following up on information that the main suspect had previously planned an attack abroad. Other people known to him are also suspected of terrorist activities. One of them is in custody in Saudi Arabia after travelling from Austria to Mecca and allegedly stabbing several people there in March 2024. Another is suspected of having known about the Vienna attack plans. Swift's concerts in the Austrian capital were cancelled after the attack threat emerged.
