15 years, 20 million

How Gusenbauer’s salary rose in the Benko universe

Alfred Gusenbauer and René Benko (right) at the opening of the Park Hyatt in Vienna

(Bild: APA-PictureDesk/Karl Schöndorfer/picturedesk.com)

Chief consultant, advisory board member, supervisory board chairman: the former SPÖ chairman was well paid by Benko's Signa Group. The "Krone" knows the details. 

In better times, René Benko and Alfred Gusenbauer would sit in the swimming pool at Villa Ansaldi on Lake Garda, soaking up the sun and enjoying big cigars. Today, financial juggler Benko is in custody. And his long-time advisor Gusenbauer is still causing a stir after his testimony before the Soko Signa investigators with lavish fees in the bankruptcy year 2023. At the end of October 2023, shortly before the crash of Signa Holding, the former SPÖ chairman invoiced two fee notes totaling 3.3 million euros. For "strategic advice" on "capital raising measures".

How did Gusenbauer come to Signa? And how was the former chancellor able to collect around 20 million euros in 15 years from the non-transparent Signa Group?

Gusenbauer was well paid by the Signa Group.

(Bild: APA/Eva Manhart)

The move from the Chancellery to the Benko universe took place on the fly, so to speak. On December 2, 2008, Gusenbauer left the Ballhausplatz, and on December 23, the first contract was signed with Benko, who was also the official managing director of Signa Holding at the time. From February 2009, Gusenbauer received a chancellor's salary of 280,000 euros per year - for a "time commitment of one working week per month", as the document states. Performance fees were also possible.

The agreement was amended in 2010: instead of "project-related, success-oriented special fees", Gusenbauer was to receive "a flat fee of EUR 280,000 p.a.(note per year) retroactively from 2009". Meaning: twice the chancellor's salary.

Alfred Gusenbauer and René Benko (right) at the opening of the Park Hyatt Vienna

(Bild: APA-PictureDesk/Karl Schöndorfer/picturedesk.com)

Rapid leaps
A confidential internal Signa document shows how things continued for Alfred Gusenbauer and his GmbH in the following years:

560,000 euros in 2012 from Signa Holding.

907,500 euros in 2013, divided between Signa Holding, Signa Recap and two supervisory board mandates.

977,500 euros in 2014.

1.105 million euros in 2015, when the Supervisory Board remuneration was still in the five-digit euro range, later also reaching six figures.

In the end - from February 2023 - the monthly fee for Advisory Board activities at Signa Holding amounted to 50,000 euros. In addition, there were special fee notes from Gusenbauer Projektentwicklung GmbH, which was to invoice the holding company a total of twelve million euros for consulting services relating to Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof alone in the period from 2020 to 2023.

The bankruptcy trustee of Signa Holding is also particularly interested in the question of what the service consisted of.

Ex-Signa head of retail is accused
According to information from "Krone" and "News", there is now another accused in the investigation being conducted by the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) against Benko and other managers of the Signa Group: Dieter Berninghaus, former chief consultant in the retail sector. One of his companies is said to have received an "economically unjustifiable loan of 16.9 million euros" from Signa Holding in 2022, which could have been used to purchase a private house.

The WKStA considers Benko and Berninghaus to be "de facto rulers" of Signa Holding. They are suspected of embezzlement and deny the allegations. The presumption of innocence applies.

A spokesperson for Berninghaus explained: "We are not yet aware of any allegations from the authorities. Should this be confirmed, we will of course cooperate with the authorities and refute these allegations."