The air is becoming thinner for René Benko and his loved ones. Not only in the financial field. According to information from “Krone”, a specially established “Soko Signa” started working at the federal criminal investigation department on Monday.
This special committee acts on behalf of the Public Prosecution Service for Economic and Corruption (WKStA), where several senior prosecutors have handled a large number of complaints in recent weeks regarding the opaque business conglomerate Signa. This concerns suspicions of property crimes such as breach of trust and fraud. It is the presumption of innocence.
More than ten criminals
As is known, the collapse of the Signa group was the largest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history. The special unit of the federal criminal investigation service is also adequately staffed for the occasion: according to reports, more than ten investigators are working on the explosive case surrounding the billion-dollar bankruptcies of Signa Holding, Signa Prime and Signa Development.
Confidant is still on the board
At Signa Holding, the trustee has already taken control of the company, while self-management is still in effect at the other two core companies. To the surprise of many economic experts. This means that there are still Benko confidants on the board.
Non-transparent corporate structure
Financial juggler Benko has created an opaque collection of more than 1,000 companies at the Signa Group over many years. Deliberate concealment was commonplace, for example in the case of annual accounts, which were often not published in the company register for years. The fines for this were refunded by the company to the directors or board members – and strangely enough even deducted from their taxes.
Moreover, there was no consolidated balance sheet in Benko’s complicated business empire, which had itself gone bankrupt, i.e. no complete financial picture of the financially ailing group. Here too, a lot of effort has been put into collaboration with tax advisors to avoid outside insights.
Access to private assets
It was only announced on Thursday that entrepreneur Benko has also filed for personal bankruptcy. The Innsbruck Regional Court has now appointed an administrator, who will have access to Benko’s assets and private accounts.
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.
