A Viennese lawyer takes over the deputy chairmanship of René Benko’s private Laura foundation. Recently, Benko’s long-time pilot was appointed to the management body.
There is renewed movement at official management level in the board of the Laura Private Foundation based in Innsbruck: According to the company register, the new vice chairman of the board of the foundation, which was founded in 2006 by René Benko and his mother Ingeborg, is the Viennese lawyer Stefan Makas, who worked at the office of Benko’s criminal lawyer Norbert Wess (wkk law) until 2018.
Lawyer replaces Signa’s financial director
Makas replaces Benko confidante and former Signa CFO Manuel Pirolt, who resigned from his position on the foundation’s board at the end of June. The three-member board is completed by South Tyrolean auditor Heinz Peter Hager (chairman) and Benko’s experienced private jet pilot Christof Jauschnegg, who also took on some management positions at Laura companies in the summer.
Benko’s real estate shadow kingdom
Under the umbrella of the Laura Foundation, financial juggler Benko is said to have built a real estate shadow empire over the years alongside the Signa Group, which has significant real estate holdings in East Germany (Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz) and in Austria. (Innsbruck). As has been reported several times, this arouses certain desires among creditors who, as is known, demand billions from the bankrupt Benko.
Member of the advisory board until January 2024
René Benko took part in a board meeting of the Laura Private Foundation in 2023. The real estate speculator was on the influential advisory board until January 2024, after which the memorandum of association was amended. Suddenly the Tyrolean no longer wants anything to do with the foundation.
However, in March and April 2024, Benko still wrote harsh emails to the director of a subsidiary of Laura Real Estate. It read, among other things: “Are you mentally ill?” Or also: “What kind of nonsense is this?”
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.
