Signa Founder Benko Found Guilty of Hiding Watches in Fraud

Rene Benko, who built a $27 billion global property empire that spanned New York’s Chrysler Building to London’s Selfridges department store, was found guilty of hiding some luxury watches from creditors in a second set of Austrian insolvency fraud charges.

The ex-real estate tycoon was cleared of stashing other watches and cash from people owed money from Signa’s collapse, and handed a 15 month suspended jail term by Austrian judges, according to his lawyer Norbert Wess. Benko will assess whether to appeal by next week, Wess said.