A family trust linked to former Austrian property magnate René Benko has filed for insolvency after being ordered to pay roughly $1 billion to companies associated with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. The development was first reported by Reuters.
The Laura Private Foundation, a trust established for Benko’s family and named after his daughter, said its board of trustees filed the insolvency claim due to payment obligations stemming from two arbitration rulings.
A court in Innsbruck, Benko’s hometown, confirmed it had received the filing and has opened insolvency proceedings.
Insolvency follows collapse of Signa empire
The latest financial setback follows the dramatic collapse of Benko’s real estate group Signa, which began unraveling in 2023 and became Austria’s largest corporate insolvency.
At its peak, Signa controlled a vast portfolio of high-profile assets, including luxury hotels in Venice and Vienna. The group also held major stakes in prominent retail chains such as Switzerland’s Globus and Britain’s Selfridges.
In January, the International Court of Arbitration in Switzerland ruled that the trust must pay about 900 million euros, roughly $1 billion, to three companies from the United Arab Emirates.
According to Austrian creditors’ association KSV 1870, those companies are linked to Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
Benko has been in prison since his arrest last year on suspicion of multiple offenses, including fraud. In October he was convicted of insolvency-related fraud and sentenced to two years in prison. Two months later he received a suspended sentence in a separate conviction tied to similar charges.
The former property tycoon denies wrongdoing and is appealing both convictions.
The insolvency of the family trust represents another chapter in the fallout from the collapse of the once powerful Signa property empire, which had built a network of high-end real estate and retail investments across Europe before its financial structure unraveled.
