Curious appointment

Benko’s pilot suddenly sits on the foundation board

Frequent flyer René Benko: his long-standing pilot has been on the board of his Laura Private Foundation since the end of June.

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung/Christof Birbaumer, APA/Roland Schlager, Krone KREATIV)

René Benko and his Signa Group have suffered the biggest bankruptcy in Austrian post-war history. The Laura Private Foundation, where insolvency administrators suspect that assets have been moved, recently saw a strange replacement on the board.

René Benko, 47, presented himself as a high-flyer for many years. Not only in the real estate and retail sectors. Even on business trips, the financial juggler always took off in a private jet. Often on board in the cockpit: Christof Jauschnegg, 48, who served as pilot to the Signa founder and his Signa Holding.

Ascent instead of exit
In the meantime, Austria's best-known bankrupt Benko has made a veritable economic crash landing: The Signa bankruptcy represents the largest insolvency in Austria's post-war history. Not only many of his companies, but also he himself had to go to the bankruptcy court. However, Benko's pilot Christof Jauschnegg has risen rather than fallen: since the end of June, he has been the new CEO of the Laura Private Foundation, in which insolvency administrators and investigators from the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption suspect that the Benkos have assets.

Frequent flyer René Benko: His long-time pilot has been on the board of his Laura Private Foundation since the end of June.

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung/Christof Birbaumer, APA/Roland Schlager, Krone KREATIV)

A pilot as a foundation board member. Such a creative trick is a rarity even in the Austrian economy. The move into the cockpit of the Benko Foundation, which had run into massive turbulence, had become necessary because Benko's trusted lawyer Bernhard Vetter von der Lilie had already announced his resignation from the foundation's board at the end of March. Benko's long-standing head of finance Manuel Pirolt was also supposed to step down at the end of June - but his name can still be found in the Wirtschafts-Compass. The board of the Laura Private Foundation, which is named after Benko's eldest daughter, is headed by the South Tyrolean tax consultant and auditor Heinz Peter Hager, who is considered to be the last representative of the real estate speculator.

Was René Benko an "economic benefactor"?
Benko himself officially no longer wants to have anything to do with the foundation, although he was on its advisory board until the end of January 2024. The beneficiary is Benko's mother Ingeborg, who the insolvency administrators of her son suspect is a "straw mother". In short: the mother, a retired kindergarten teacher, was only a "pretext", while Benko was actually the "economic benefactor".

Creditors have filed claims of around two billion euros in the personal bankruptcy proceedings of the former Signa ruler. Benko's insolvency administrators from the law firm CHG recently obtained an interim injunction against Ingeborg Benko, according to which she is no longer allowed to make any changes to the foundation declarations or the two foundation statutes.

Ingeborg Benko's "declaration of consent" was issued immediately after the recent raids.

(Bild: zVg)

However, Ingeborg Benko signed the "declaration of consent" stating that her son's pilot would be hoisted into the pulpit of the Laura Foundation. On June 28, 2024, she even "waived compliance with any deadlines."