Ex-agent became active
How Benko had his chief advisor spied on
In 2023, a former secret service agent from Israel had René Benko's longstanding commercial strategist spied on. Using dubious methods. The "Krone" knows the background.
The key facts are known. With his Signa conglomerate, René Benko has made by far the biggest bankruptcy in Austrian post-war history. The intransparent and convoluted construct collapsed at the end of 2023 under a billion-euro debt burden. Since then, armies of lawyers, investigators and restructuring administrators have been dealing with an insolvency that is unparalleled in terms of both its size and complexity.
One thing is indisputable: René Benko was the head of a Signa juggernaut that he controlled until the very end, until its demise in 2023, even though he had resigned from any board function ten years earlier following his criminal conviction. There are now hundreds of pieces of evidence of Benko's intensive involvement. It is also well documented that the 47-year-old Tyrolean, who since his bankruptcy as an entrepreneur at the beginning of March 2024 would like to give the impression that he has little or nothing to do with his foundations, apparently continues to reign in his family's money bunkers.
Now the affair surrounding a financial juggler, who as a real estate speculator even wanted to compete with the English royal family in the heyday of his Signa Group, is taking on a new dimension.
Mafia-like methods
Because: Research by "Krone" and "News" suggests that René Benko may not only have overstepped all boundaries on a commercial level for years; he also crossed red lines on a personal level and apparently cared little about the legal framework. He had a confidant who had been close to him for many years spied on. In doing so, he used mafia-like methods that are otherwise only known from feature films. He apparently no longer trusted anyone - at least towards the end. Not even his closest confidants.
On January 10, 2024, René Benko received an email to his Signa email address, which was still active two months after the Signa Holding crash. The attachment bears the name: "Scan Mr. Buller". The PDF document contains highly explosive content.
The 39 pages contain private financial details relating to the highly personal life of a former Signa chief strategist. It concerns Dieter Berninghaus, Benko's senior advisor in the retail sector for many years. The bundle contains financial details about Berninghaus that cannot be obtained by normal, legal means. They even include: business commissions for which Berninghaus' wife was responsible. But also: all the details about the share portfolio of the company that Mrs. Berninghaus runs as managing director.
Cancer
In order to grasp the full extent of these activities, it is necessary to take a step back - to May 2023. At that time, just a few months before the final demise of the non-transparent Signa Group, Signa trading expert Dieter Berninghaus signed off in the Signa universe, which was already in a precarious state. And for good reason: Berninghaus is suffering from cancer, and all his doctors are strongly advising him to undergo examinations and operations in England and the USA as soon as possible.
But Benko no longer trusts his long-time confidant Berninghaus. He, who according to former companions sometimes gave the impression that he could walk on water, has clearly lost all grip on the ground. So Benko's Signa has commissioned an internationally sought-after specialist for intelligence activities: Moshe Buller, a former senior agent of the Israeli domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, who went into business for himself years ago with a group of former intelligence officers.
Buller's company, the International Intelligence Agency (IAA), operates through branches in Israel, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. The US office is located in New York's Chrysler Building. Buller is a rather offensive representative of his secretive guild: he sometimes appears at conferences such as the World Police Summit. His name also appears on the website of the "World Economic Council (WEC)" organization with an address in Vienna city centre. Buller is described there as an "ambassador", a representative for Israel.
Confidential bank data
Buller appears to be well connected. He delivers. More than René Benko would have dared to hope for. The 39-page folder ("Scan Mr. Buller"), which the Signa founder is looking at on 10 January 2024, even includes invoices to Ms. Berninghaus' landscape architects. There is also a complete overview of the most recent share transactions of a Berninghaus company at a Swiss regional bank. This involves a securities account worth several million Swiss francs. Obviously, dishonest methods were used to penetrate the highly personal, deeply private sphere of a Signa manager who had been a key figure for years and to spy on the Benko confidant.
Research by "Krone" and "News" suggests that René Benko received this bundle of documents on January 10, 2024 - and removed it from his inbox soon afterwards.
Conspicuous fee notes
These absurd activities by Israeli intelligence specialist Moshe Buller were apparently invoiced via a long-standing Benko lawyer of trust: Stefan Prochaska, who had already advised Benko in the Chorherr proceedings.
Stefan Prochaska even documented various invoices for services in his official fee notes to Signa Holding, which are available to "Krone" and "News". He wrote to Signa Holding, which was controlled by Benko and acted as the ultimate core company for years, higher five-figure fee invoices in which there are not only references to "discussions with (the) investigator", but also dramatically high cash outlays that could have been used for borderline activities.
According to an internal list, at least two of these high legal invoices from 2023 were transferred to the law firm Prochaska. In this context, an email exchange between Signa Holding managing director Marcus Mühlberger and the chief controller of the Signa Group, who had an eye on the payments to Prochaska, is tricky.
A good two months after Signa Holding filed for insolvency, Mühlberger asked under the subject line "Prochaska": "Do you have the documents for his application? Thank you."
The Signa finance manager replied: "He hasn't made a claim.... He probably knows why...."
"Stunned and extremely shocked"
Ex-intelligence officer Moshe Buller confirmed on request that his company had carried out "investigations into Mr. Berninghaus". However, the office of Benko lawyer Prochaska was only something like "an initial meeting room" - "and nothing more". He had "never met" Mr. Benko.
Benko lawyer Stefan Prochaska left an inquiry unanswered.
Berninghaus, who was spied on, said via his legal representative: "Dieter Berninghaus and his family are stunned and extremely shocked by the facts that have come to light here." These must now be analyzed in detail. "The family is therefore unable to comment on possible legal steps at this time."
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.