With $27 Billion Empire in Ashes, Austrian Tycoon Rene Benko Starts Fraud Trial

Rene Benko’s $27 billion property empire once spanned New York’s Chrysler Building and London’s Selfridges department store, luring billionaires and sovereign wealth funds before the fallout from its demise brought down the leadership of one of the world’s biggest private banks.

Two years after Signa’s spectacular downfall, the first of what is likely to be many court cases for the tycoon began Tuesday with his fraud trial over a rent payment in his home city in the Austrian Alps.