The well-stocked wine cellar of the bankrupt Signa Holding is now also going under the hammer. Signa founder René Benko and his advisor Alfred Gusenbauer would try delicious wines in select company as early as 2008.
The major auction of Signa Holding on the aurena.at platform has been enriched since Thursday with a few rarities: after leather rubbish bins and toilet brush holders in a brushed brass color, the restructuring manager of the bankrupt Benko is now also taking over the well-stocked wine cellar at Signa’s headquarters. center of Vienna the online hammer is coming. The starting prices start at 14 euros per magnum bottle. The wine taste of the real estate speculator and his Signa managers can certainly be described as excellent.
“Bordeaux Legends Evening” with a bottle from 1894
The invitation lists for the exclusive wine rounds to which René Benko was invited in 2008 were hand-picked. Fine grape juices were served there, which today can easily fetch a price of several thousand euros per bottle among collectors.
An excerpt from a “Bordeaux Legends Evening” on May 29, 2008: Lafite Rothschild 1982, Latour 1959, Pichon Comtesse de Lalande 1982 and a Chateau d’Yquem from 1894.
Organizer of the tastings: the Viennese PR professional Wolfgang Rosam, who as a Falstaff publisher also runs the largest wine publishing house and has repeatedly carried out communication and lobbying activities for financial juggler René Benko and his Signa for years. The other participants in the tastings and evaluations always included selected gentlemen from the business community, including board members of large system banks and private banks.
“Farewell tasting for our former Chancellor”
In 2008 number 1 on the invitation list: Alfred Gusenbauer, still chancellor at the round on May 29, already out of service as chancellor on December 21. The invitation to Benko, in which Rosam thanked him for his commitment to the tasting of Bordeaux rarities, mentions a small “farewell tasting for our former Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer”.
Toast to collaboration?
The meeting in December 2008 was explosive because Benko and his future multimillion-dollar advisor Gusenbauer laid the foundation for their collaboration in December 2008. As is known, Gusenbauer had to leave the Ballhausplatz for Werner Faymann on December 2, 2008. On December 18, he reached an agreement with the Tyrolean Signa founder, which would give him a chancellor’s salary of around 280,000 euros per month from February 2009. For one week of work per month. The agreement was subsequently signed by Gusenbauer and Benko on December 23. And in between you will of course toast with fine Bordeaux wines. They already knew each other: Gusenbauer, during his time as a top politician in connection with Benko’s Tyrolean department store, is said to have pointed out to the Tyrolean representatives that such purchasing initiatives could not be avoided if they wanted to revitalize the city. centers.
Wolfgang Rosam makes a point of saying that he has not seen René Benko since the end of last year. Rosam has owned 19 percent of the consultancy firm, which until recently had a contract with Signa Holding, for just over a year. Since then he has been more than busy as Falstaff editor.
Media-effective auctions
The fact is: Signa Holding’s high-profile auctions are intended to indicate the willingness to save, but do not make a significant contribution to the economic solution to the bankruptcy. There’s not much left to look for in Vienna when the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic and Corruption (WKStA) decides to carry out a new search to shed light on the largest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history. Why the WKStA seems to remain in shock, given the facts known so far, remains a mystery to observers.
The willingness to save money that Signa has shown to the outside world does not necessarily have consequences for concrete juggler Benko. His huge intercontinental plane still regularly shuttles between Vienna and Innsbruck. As if nothing had happened.
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.
