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Italian prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Austrian real estate tycoon René Benko amid an investigation into alleged irregularities with his business in the South Tyrol region, two law enforcement officials familiar with the case confirmed.
A total of nine people – including the mayor of a small Italian town, a city manager, three businessmen and four professionals – have been placed under house arrest or are wanted for suspected crimes related to the real estate sector in the Trentino-Alto Adige region, the Trento prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.
The arrest warrants mark the latest twist in the insolvency of Benko’s Signa conglomerate, which saddled banks, insurance companies and other investors in Austria and Germany with billions of euros in losses.
Creditors have accused a key entity within the Signa group of “illegal transactions” before it filed for bankruptcy last December. Austria’s anti-corruption prosecutors opened an investigation into fraud allegations in April.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that investigations by Italy’s anti-mafia unit had revealed the apparent existence of “a business group capable of influencing and/or controlling major public initiatives,” especially in the sector of construction speculation” in Trentino -Alto Adige.
“The entrepreneurs involved would make themselves available to finance the election campaigns of public administrators, obtaining benefits, simplified procedures and concessions for real estate initiatives,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
Norbert Wess, Benko’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement that no European arrest warrant would be executed against his client. He also said that Austrian authorities had “not imposed any other conditions or obligations on Mr Benko”.
Austria’s post-war constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens to participate in foreign legal proceedings.
“Mr Benko will – as before – continue to fully cooperate with all national and international authorities and is confident that all allegations against him can be clarified as substantively incorrect.”
Benko was one of Europe’s most flamboyant property developers, whose empire acquired stakes in New York’s Chrysler Building, London’s Selfridges and even the building that houses the Austrian Constitutional Court in Vienna.
But its flagship holding company, Signa, collapsed last year under the pressure of its billion-dollar debt, and Benko filed for personal bankruptcy earlier this year.
Signa projects in the Alto-Adige region include an ambitious mixed-use shopping centre, office and apartment complex in the heart of Bolzano, just a short distance from the city’s historic cathedral.
Benko made the area his second home and, through his Liechtenstein-based personal foundation, purchased several luxury properties around Lake Garda for his and his family’s use.
In addition to issuing the arrest warrants on Tuesday, authorities also searched more than 100 locations in Trento, Bolzano, Milan, Rome, Brescia and other Italian cities.
In total, the prosecutor’s statement said that 77 people were being investigated in this case, including 11 civil servants and 20 managers of local public offices and public sector companies, as well as some law enforcement officials and local businessmen.
The charges leveled against those suspected of involvement in the case include criminal conspiracy, fraud, rigging of procurement procedures, illegal financing of political parties, unlawful receipt of payments to the detriment of the state, corruption and disclosure of official secrets , the prosecutor’s statement said. said.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome and Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli in Milan