Selfridges tycoon’s Alpine villa targeted by tax man

A PROPERTY tycoon whose empire includes Selfridges faces losing his luxury Alpine home after authorities claimed it as security against unpaid taxes.

Austrian Rene Benko, 46, is the founder of Signa Group, the sprawling business with assets that also include the Chrysler Building. But Signa was declared insolvent in November, sparking a complex process to untangle a vast network of shell companies that Mr Benko used to control assets.

He reportedly still lives in the wall-ringed luxury villa in Igls, near Innsbruck, with the rest of his family.

But tax officials have now placed a claim against the property, or “lien”, worth about €12m (£9.5m), representing eight years of allegedly unpaid sales taxes from 2016 to 2023, but they have not commented publicly on the details.

The villa is owned by a company controlled by a private foundation named after Mr Benko’s daughter, the Austrian newspaper Heute reported, and this same foundation also controls Mr Benko’s personal private jet, yacht and art collection.

A spokesman for the foundation rejected the allegation that Mr Benko had failed to pay taxes on the property.

They said the taxes had been paid and then refunded and so the claim for repayment had “no legal basis”, according to Bloomberg.

Signa Group had joint control of Selfridges until recently, when Thailand’s Central Group took majority ownership. However, Signa still holds a 50pc stake in the chain’s property company, which controls sites including the flagship Oxford Street luxury department store.