Austrian court grants former property tycoon Benko's request for house arrest

VIENNA, Oct 14 — An Austrian court on Wednesday granted former property tycoon Rene Benko's request ​to be released from prison to house arrest with an ankle monitor after he served two-thirds of a 30-month sentence for ‌insolvency fraud.

Benko, 49, will now move from prison in his home city of Innsbruck to a ⁠roughly 60-square-metre (650-square-foot) apartment that his lawyer ​Norbert Wess has said has ⁠been rented for him in the city so he can better prepare ‌for a fraud trial ‌next month. Benko denies all wrongdoing.

Benko has been convicted of ⁠insolvency-related fraud in the two cases brought ⁠to trial so far stemming from a sprawling investigation into the collapse of the Signa property group he founded. The second conviction resulted in a suspended sentence.

He remains a suspect in the continuing investigation into a range of potential crimes including fraud, with prosecutors estimating ‌the total harm caused by Benko and other ​suspects at €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion). His first two trials dealt with sums in the hundreds of thousands of euros.

At its peak, Signa controlled all or part of luxury properties including five-star hotels in Venice and Vienna and the Chrysler Building in New York, as well as high-end department-store chains such as Britain's Selfridges and Switzerland's Globus. Benko became a ​self-made billionaire.

"It was ordered that investigative detention be continued as electronically monitored house ‌arrest," the court ‌in Innsbruck ⁠said in a statement issued after the closed-door hearing on Wednesday, adding that conditions attached included having no contact with anyone related to Signa.

The next trial Benko faces is for aggravated fraud and insolvency-related fraud, with prosecutors ‌accusing him of making ​a false guarantee causing harm of €5 million. ‌The trial is due ⁠to be ​held in Innsbruck next month.

($1 = 0.8925 euros)

(Reporting by Francois MurphyEditing by Ros Russell and ​Toby Chopra)

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