{"id":8994,"date":"2024-12-04T10:55:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T10:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/italian-prosecutors-issue-arrest-warrant-for-signas-rene-benko\/"},"modified":"2024-12-04T10:55:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T10:55:54","slug":"italian-prosecutors-issue-arrest-warrant-for-signas-rene-benko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=8994","title":{"rendered":"Italian prosecutors issue arrest warrant for Signa\u2019s Ren\u00e9 Benko"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Italian prosecutors have issued a warrant for the arrest of Austrian property tycoon Ren\u00e9 Benko amid an investigation into alleged improprieties with his business in the South Tyrol region, two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter confirmed.<\/p>\n

In total, nine people \u2014 including the mayor of a small Italian town, a city manager, three business people and four professionals \u2014 have been put under house arrest or are being sought for suspected malfeasance linked to the property sector in the Trentino-Alto Adige region, the Trento prosecutor\u2019s office said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The arrest warrants mark the latest twist in the insolvency of Benko\u2019s Signa conglomerate, which saddled banks, insurance companies and other investors in Austria and Germany with billions of euros in losses.<\/p>\n

Creditors have accused a key entity in the Signa group of engaging in \u201cunlawful transactions\u201d before it filed for insolvency last December. Austria\u2019s anti-corruption prosecutors in April opened an investigation into fraud allegations. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors on Tuesday said investigations by Italy\u2019s anti-mafia unit had revealed the apparent existence of \u201ca business group capable of influencing and\/or controlling\u201d major public initiatives, \u201cespecially in the sector of building speculation\u201d in Trentino-Alto Adige. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe entrepreneurs involved would make themselves available to finance the electoral campaigns of public administrators, obtaining benefits, simplified procedures and concessions for real estate initiatives,\u201d the prosecutors\u2019 statement said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Norbert Wess, a lawyer for Benko, said in an emailed statement that no European arrest warrant would be executed against his client.\u00a0He also said Austrian authorities \u201chad not imposed any other conditions or obligations on Mr Benko\u201d.<\/p>\n

Austria\u2019s postwar constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens to participate in foreign court proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Benko will continue \u2014 as before \u2014 to co-operate fully with all national and international authorities and is confident that any allegations against him can be clarified as substantively incorrect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benko was one of Europe\u2019s most flamboyant property developers, whose empire acquired stakes in New York\u2019s Chrysler Building, London\u2019s Selfridges and even the building that houses Austria\u2019s constitutional court in Vienna.<\/p>\n

But his flagship holding company, Signa, disintegrated last year under pressure from its billions of euros of debt, and Benko filed for personal insolvency earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Signa projects in the Alto-Adige region included an ambitious mixed-use shopping centre, office and apartment complex in the heart of Bolzano, just a short distance from the town\u2019s historic cathedral.<\/p>\n

Benko made the area his second home, buying several luxurious properties around Lake Garda for the use of him and his family through his Liechtenstein-based personal foundation.<\/p>\n

In addition to issuing the warrants on Tuesday, authorities also searched more than 100 locations in Trento, Bolzano, Milan, Rome, Brescia and other Italian cities. <\/p>\n

In total, the prosecutor\u2019s statement said 77 people were under investigation in the case, including 11 public officials and 20 managers of local public offices and public sector companies, as well as some law enforcement officials and local businesspeople.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the charges being levied against those suspected of involvement in the matter include criminal conspiracy, fraud, bid-rigging, illicit financing of political parties, undue receipt of payments to the detriment of the state, corruption and revelation\u00a0of official secrets, the prosecutors statement said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome and Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli in Milan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Italian prosecutors have issued a warrant for the arrest of Austrian property tycoon Ren\u00e9 Benko amid an investigation into alleged improprieties with his business in the South Tyrol region, two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter confirmed. In total, nine people \u2014 including the mayor of a small<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[3302,3306,3301,2982,710,3305,3304,3303],"class_list":{"0":"post-8994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-benko","10":"tag-issue","11":"tag-italian","12":"tag-prosecutors","13":"tag-rene","14":"tag-signas","15":"tag-warrant"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}