480,000 euros

How a Lamborghini was purchased for Mrs. Benko

The Benko couple: a Lamborghini Urus was ordered via the Signa Group in April 2023. The "family car" was in a different color than the one pictured here.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Kristian Bissuti; lamborghini.com)

The luxury of the Benkos: even in times of increasing payment bottlenecks, the financial juggler had a super sports car purchased via the Signa Group and its holding managing director.

The question of when the main companies in René Benko's convoluted Signa Group were effectively insolvent will probably keep lawyers and courts busy for a long time to come. The fact is that the parent company, Signa Holding, which ended up being by far the biggest bankruptcy in Austrian economic history, was already really short of cash long before it officially filed for insolvency at the end of November 2023.

Lawyers sent payment reminders
This can be seen, for example, in the fact that Signa already owed lawyers' fees in 2022: both Benko's in-house law firm (Arnold Rechtsanwälte GmbH) and Benko's Viennese defense lawyer Stefan Prochaska had to repeatedly send payment reminders in the first half of 2023 and insist that their services be paid.

The Benko couple: In April 2023, a Lamborghini Urus was ordered via the Signa Group. The "family car" was in a different color to the one shown here.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Kristian Bissuti; lamborghini.com)

A collective invoice from Nikolaus Arnold was once for 288,347.25 euros. When Holding Managing Director Marcus Mühlberger asked a Signa financial manager about an outstanding lawyer's invoice from Vienna another time, the manager told him at the beginning of June 2023: He currently had no money; because, among other things, Ms. Benko's car had to be paid for.

Mrs. Benko's car?

Excerpt from the purchase contract: the final purchase price was 480,000 euros(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg)

666 hp, 44 percent NoVA
In fact, during this turbulent time before the big bang, the Signa Group bought a new luxury sports car for Nathalie Benko to use. A Lamborghini Urus Performante, 666 hp, in a special shade of green (surcharge: 10,600 euros) and with all the extras such as a Bang & Olufsen sound system for advanced users (5798 euros). For such a vehicle, 44 percent standard consumption tax (NoVA) alone is due. In addition, there is a CO₂ penalty of 10,500 euros. The contract was signed on April 13, 2023 by Benko's "signature August" Marcus Mühlberger, his long-standing Holding Managing Director. Gross purchase price: a slim 480,000 euros.

Significant prioritization
So while the lights were increasingly threatening to go out in Benko's corporate kingdom of darkness in the course of 2023 and Signa's financial managers were desperately searching for liquid funds at every turn, the top management around the now bankrupt real estate speculator apparently still set significant priorities: They preferred to afford the 480,000 euros for a Lamborghini instead of satisfying creditors who had been waiting longer for their money.

Thepool of "family cars"
 Benko is considered a fan of luxurious cars. According to confidential documents from the Signa empire, the pool of "family cars" included Mercedes (S-Class) and BMW (X5 and 5-series) vehicles. Some of the pool cars were also used by the security staff. The invoice recipients of the cars were either Signa Holding or Benko himself.

Since the collapse of Signa, the installments for the luxury Lamborghini and other "family cars" have apparently been paid by the Benkos' entourage. He himself is known to be insolvent.