The owner of the property, René Benko, was captured by Austria

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Austrian property tycoon René Benko has been arrested after Vienna’s criminal prosecutors accused him of making false statements in the bankruptcy proceedings of Singa’s estate in an attempt to steal the property.

Law enforcement officials said. A bench He was arrested on Thursday because of what is believed to be a plane crash and because prosecutors believe he may have tampered with evidence. They also accused him of falsifying a document.

In an unrelated investigation, Italian police issued an arrest warrant for Benko in December in the South Tyrol region in connection with an alleged attack on his business. Vienna’s criminal prosecutors announced on Thursday the creation of a joint investigation team with prosecutors in Berlin and Munich to speed up cross-border investigations.

Benko’s arrest comes more than a year after the collapse of Singa Congress, which cost insurance companies, banks and other investors in Austria and Germany billions of euros.

Prosecutors allege that Benko is the ultimate beneficial owner of the Innsbruck family estate named after his daughter, Laura. Financial Times It was reported last year The Singa Group company transferred more than €300mn to two entities controlled by that foundation before bankruptcy.

Austrian prosecutors have filed charges against an entity called the Benko Laura Foundation that it failed to disclose its own bankruptcy proceedings.

“In doing so, he hid the assets and kept the assets in the foundation away from law enforcement authorities, the trustee and creditors,” the prosecutor said. press releasePointing to evidence gathered during a months-long investigation, including phone surveillance.

Benko is also accused of fabricating evidence by fabricating receipts to keep three valuable guns out of the hands of authorities, prosecutors said.

The prosecutor stated that Benko had tricked Singa’s shareholders into participating in the capital increase under the pretense that the family foundation would raise new funds, and claimed that the payments made by foreign investors were his own contributions. Various legal entities.

Benko is also accused of selling a luxury villa on Lake Garda in Italy, Villa Eden Garden, to a Liechtenstein-based foundation in what prosecutors consider a fraudulent transaction.

He is accused of defrauding a foreign sovereign wealth fund he persuaded to invest in a property project near Munich’s central train station. The prosecutor added that most of the money was illegally used for other purposes.

Benko’s lawyer did not immediately respond to the FT’s request for comment.