Postponed debts

Benko: How juggling was done in the “shadow realm”

Signa founder Benko: the non-transparent corporate construct is now being scrutinized.(Bild: APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER)

In June 2023, a few months before the big bang in the Signa Group, René Benko and his confidants set a complicated money carousel in motion to shift millions in debt from the Benkos' Laura empire to the financially ailing Signa empire. At stake is 14.5 million euros.

Did René Benko try to set up an even more opaque shadow empire called Laura alongside his bankrupt Signa group in order to keep his financial sheep in the dry? Did the financial juggler shift millions in debt from the Laura sphere to later Signa bankruptcy companies before the collapse of the Signa companies?