Meinl House sale

How 28 million was supposed to go to the Benko Foundation

One aspect of the investigation into the Signa affair is particularly explosive: the sale of the Meinl-Haus at Graben 19 in Vienna. The property in a prime city center location was sold to the Vienna Medical Association on 14 December 2023, just 15 days before Signa Prime went bankrupt. For the proud price of 80 million euros.

The deal is remarkable for two reasons: firstly, market observers were already amazed at the considerable purchase price at the time, as the property was only valued internally at just over 50 million.

The manager's wife acted as broker
Secondly, as reported, the wife of Signa's longstanding top manager Bernhard Jost acted as broker. Bernhard Jost had not only been an authorized signatory of Signa Prime since 2015, he was also on the management board of "Graben 19 Immobilien GmbH", where Signa had parked the Meinl-Haus. Together with Manuel Pirolt, the long-standing Signa board member and central CFO, who is considered a close confidant of financial juggler Benko. Jost's wife is said to have received a reported one million euros for her activities.

In the course of the Benko raids, the deal surrounding the Meinl House is being reopened. According to the search warrant obtained by "Krone", the corruption investigators came across a remarkable transaction involving Signa managers Jost and Pirolt.

Investigators searched the Benko property in Innsbruck-Igls on Wednesday.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Attempted transfer to a foundation account
According to suspicions, on December 27 or 28, one or two days before the parent company Signa Prime filed for insolvency, the duo attempted to transfer "an amount of 28 million euros from an account of Graben 19 Immobilien GmbH to an account of the INGBE Foundation at Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG".

However, the transaction to the Benkos' foundation was rejected by the Liechtensteinische Landesbank - "with reference to a possible impairment of creditor interests". As a result, the Signa managers close to Benko are said to have had the 28 million euros transferred to a trust account of the INGBE Foundation at Erste Bank.

Bernhard Jost and Manuel Pirolt are now being targeted by the public prosecutor's office for economic affairs and corruption. They are suspected of embezzlement and fraudulent corruption. The accused deny any wrongdoing and the presumption of innocence applies.

In its press release on the Signa raids, the WKStA was only allowed to confirm that part of the purchase price was recently seized in connection with the sale of a city center property.