The name of ex-chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer also keeps coming up in connection with the René Benko case. He also sits on the advisory board of Signa Holding and has collected millions in fees for consulting services through his company, but apparently without actually having the necessary business license.
According to News magazine, former SPÖ chairman Benko had shopping done for him in December 2008, just a few days after he left the government. As early as February 2009, Gusenbauer is said to have received an “annual fixed amount” of 280,000 euros for “one week of time per month”.
Receiving consultancy fees in the millions
Gusenbauer has been acting chairman of Signa Prime’s supervisory board since 2010 and also chief controller of Signa Development since 2015. According to “News”, the ex-chancellor invoiced Signa Holding for consultancy fees amounting to more than seven million euros through his company Gusenbauer Projektentwicklung & Beteiligung GmbH for the period from January 2020 to February 2021. Including approximately 2.4 million euros “for advice on the restructuring and financing (…) of the Galleria-Kaufhof-Karstadt Group…” (the “Krone” reported, see invoice below).
However, as things stand now, there is no registration in the commercial register for Gusenbauer’s company, the “Presse” reported on Tuesday. This raises the legitimate question of whether a business license existed at all to provide such consultancy services during the relevant periods, the newspaper said. “Project development and investment management” is listed as a sector in the commercial register of Gusenbauer Projektentwicklung & Beteiligung GmbH.
WKO: Advice falls under commercial law
The advice in question clearly fell under commercial law, writes the “Pers”. If the fees were earned within the specified range, the scope of this activity must undoubtedly have been carried out on a commercial basis, the paper said.
Important details disappeared from the Signa website
In addition to Alfred Gusenbauer, the high-ranking advisory board of René Benkos Signa Holding also consists of Wüstenrot boss Susanne Riess-Hahn and ex-Raiffeisen banker Karl Sevelda and the ex-director of Casinos Austria, Karl Stoss. Since “maintenance work” took place on the Signa website this weekend, when it was virtually offline, all information about the advisory board has been removed from it.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
