Luxury Villa Becomes Wellness Hotel: Benko Family Leaves Estate in Igls
Following the insolvency of Signa and the imprisonment of company founder René Benko, his family is leaving the luxury villa in Igls. The property is to be converted into a wellness hotel. Meanwhile, a court ruling makes new headlines in the Benko case.
Rene Benko owned many prominent buildings in German-speaking countries, including the Icon in Vienna. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons; User:Geolina163, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
There is no end to the legal and financial entanglements surrounding the fallen real estate mogul René Benko. While the former model entrepreneur has been in custody since the end of January, his family has now apparently left the luxury villa in Igls, as reported by ORF. According to media reports, the property, which is owned by the Laura Private Foundation, is to be converted into a wellness hotel.
The foundation's board, headed by German entrepreneur Thomas Limberger, is pursuing plans to redesign the 5,500-square-meter property. The building already has a spacious wellness area, and now an operator will be found for the future hotel.
Mother as a key player in the foundations
The villa in Igls has been owned by the Laura Private Foundation since 2006, with René Benko's mother, Ingeborg Benko, acting as the first donor. She is said to have paid a monthly rent of 238,500 euros via this foundation to enable her son and his family to live in the property. In recent months, however, the rent has no longer been paid, which raised questions about the foundation's actual control.
The insolvency administrator in Signa's insolvency proceedings, Andreas Grabenweger, assumed that René Benko retained control of the Laura Private Foundation and the Liechtenstein-based Ingbe Foundation. In his opinion, his mother merely served as a “straw woman” to protect assets from being seized by creditors.
Court dismisses claim against Benko's mother
In this context, the trustee in bankruptcy attempted to take over the founders' rights to both private foundations by means of a civil action. However, the Innsbruck Regional Court recently dismissed this action, as reported by ORF.
According to court spokeswoman Birgit Fink, the plaintiff lacked an “interest in a declaratory judgment”. This means that the trustee in bankruptcy could not sufficiently justify why he should be given control of the foundations. However, the judgment is not yet final and it remains to be seen whether an appeal will be lodged against the decision.
The Signa bankruptcy and Benko's imprisonment
The developments surrounding Benko's mother are only a small part of a far-reaching financial scandal. Signa Holding, once one of the largest real estate companies in Europe, filed for insolvency at the end of 2023 - the largest company bankruptcy in Austrian economic history. René Benko is being investigated on suspicion of embezzlement, fraud, and fraudulent conduct.
Although Benko was considered one of the most powerful real estate investors in Europe with a fortune of several billion euros, the current developments show how quickly his empire collapsed. While the legal disputes continue, the former luxury residence in Igls is taking a new direction - as a wellness hotel instead of the family home of one of Austria's once most successful but now fallen entrepreneurs.