The Soko Signa is still looking for new evidence – Diepresse.com
Vienna. The Signa epic is not yet told-not yet. During the founder of the crashed real estate group, René Benkositting in custody, more and more details are being created on controversial real estate deals – and also more and more questions from the investigators. So the Soko Signa moved On Wednesday again to search several offices and premises. Since autumn 2023 there have been several raids, also in Germany, Italy and Luxembourg.
This time the focus was on signa projects in Munich during the recent house search due to European investigative orders. This emerges from the arrangement that the « press » has. The public prosecutor’s office in Munich I and the Italian Procura della Repubblica di Trento – Direzione Distrettual Antimafia (DDA) had requested for legal assistance in Austria. The house searches were requested by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor (WKStA), approved by the regional court for criminal matters Vienna. The employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office searched the Signa rooms at Herrengasse 14 in Vienna. They belong to the insolvent and important signa subsidiary Signa Prime. Their real estate is currently being used by insolvency administrator Norbert Abel. Objects from Signa Development were also affected. « My job as an insolvency administrator is to ensure the ordered handling of the insolvency proceedings and contribute to the full clarification of all relevant and significant facts, » said Signa-Deveploment-Insolven-Bündenin Andrea Fruhstorfer.
Offices and the offices of the Laura private foundation in Innsbruck were also searched in Renngasse and in Korneuburg. Warehouse rooms, attics, basements and underground garages were also felted. According to documents, « restoration of deleted data » is required. Deletions would sometimes document the dismissions.
Connection to private foundations
Specifically, it is about twelve companies around two projects in Munich on Bahnhofsplatz 7, Schützenstraße and the old academy. The new building project between the main train station and Stachus as well as « Project Franz », the former department store Tietz on Bahnhofplatz, has been broke since the beginning of 2024. Financial providers were the Saudi State Fund PIF (Public Investment Fund), Helaba Bank and Raiffeisen. Now there are building ruins in the heart of the Bavarian capital.
According to the arrangement, documents, letters, emails, diaries, meeting protocols, bank confirmations and much more should be ensured that « the economic conditions and the liquidity » of these companies present from 2017 and provide information about the creation of their annual financial statements; Documents with regard to the Benko Private Foundation, Laura Private Foundation and Ingbe Foundation as well as suburb Holding AG. The suburb Holding AG belongs to a Luxembourg company called Landgraf SA, and it belongs to the Arual, a Liechtenstein private foundation. The Arual Foundation is also the foundation that has bunkered gold stocks in the millions.
The German authorities accuse the Signa Managers of deducting a three-digit million amount and passing them on. The suspicion of fraud and infidelity is in the room. There is also a criminal complaint. The Munich I public prosecutor’s office has eight Signa managers in their sights, including Benko himself, but also the former Signa boss Timo Herzberg and the ex-financial board Manuel Pirolt. A procedure is carried out against them for « suspicion of fraud in a particularly severe case in a majority with infidelity in two cases ». This emerges from the documents. The Munich public prosecutor asked for a « direct handover of the seized and confiscated evidence ».
Signa manager on bankruptcy
Herzberg was the most important German signa manager before his notice without notice at the end of 2023. He was the head of Signa Prime and Signa Development. The German was recently submerged. Manuel Pirolt, in turn, is in the middle of the bankruptcy proceedings. The demands amount to EUR 9.75 million, of which only half was recognized. However, the assets are not sufficient to pay the debts or the costs of the procedure. Thus, the creditors are probably looking at a total loss.
Benko is also in bankruptcy. In the bankruptcy proceedings on his assets as an entrepreneur, on Wednesday State Court of Innsbruck a day statute. A total of 40 creditors, including other Signa companies and one German bankaround 2.7 billion euros from Benko. 47.4 million euros were recognized. Benko is currently in custody in Vienna, which was only extended by two months on Tuesday. The Italian judiciary had previously issued a European arrest warrant against it at the end of 2024.
