Hunt for the juggler
Drumbeat: Court freezes Benko millions
A bombshell in the affair surrounding Austria's best-known bankrupt: a court on the British Channel Island of Guernsey has frozen millions from René Benko's foundation.
This is according to documents obtained by the "Krone" and "News". The background is likely to be international arbitration proceedings in which the Arab sovereign wealth fund Mubadala is demanding around 700 million euros from the Signa Group and its founder Benko.
62-meter yacht for 25 million
Specifically, it concerns the 62-meter yacht RoMa, which Benko has sailed the seas with in recent years to attract investors. The RoMa was owned by a subsidiary of the Laura Private Foundation.
Following the collapse of the deliberately opaque Signa conglomerate, the motor yacht was also to be sold: According to reports, it went to Paul van Zuydam, the owner of the Le Creuset Group, the world market leader for enameled cast iron cookware, for 25 million euros. Van Zuydam is a South African entrepreneur whose fortune is estimated at half a billion euros.
"Worldwide freezing order"
The court in Guernsey has now collected the purchase price for the time being and frozen the millions from the transaction worldwide. The official court document entitled "Worldwide Freezing Order" states: "Until further order of this court", the proceeds from the sale of a superyacht named RoMa may not be disposed of "in any way".
This court decision is the first serious blow for Benko and his Laura Private Foundation, which the financial juggler set up together with his mother - but in which he no longer wishes to be a beneficiary. Nevertheless, the real estate speculator also pulled important strings in the Laura Foundation - until the end of January 2024, he sat on the foundation's advisory board, which can exert significant influence.
As reported, the Benkos' real estate assets are stashed away in the Laura Foundation. It was recently suspected that the bankrupt, who has officially been living on 3,700 euros per month as an entrepreneur since his bankruptcy, may have built up a kind of Signa shadow empire with the Laura Private Foundation. However, the numerous properties in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Innsbruck are burdened by high loan financing.
The exciting question is whether the many liquidators and creditors will be able to crack the Benko foundations. A few months before the collapse of the opaque group of companies, interesting shifts in assets took place, which are now keeping legions of lawyers and financial experts busy.
Benko lawyer Norbert Wess announces that the order will be fought.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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