Ex-Signa board member:
“All managers were bought by Benko”
Erhard Grossnigg, short-term CEO of Signa Prime and Signa Development from the end of 2023, settled accounts with company founder René Benko at the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption. The "Krone" knows the details.
On Tuesday, October 14, the first trial against financial juggler René Benko starts at the Innsbruck Regional Court. Despite this, investigations into the true background to the biggest bankruptcy in European post-war history are ongoing in Vienna. The Soko Signa is investigating a dozen other strands that have to be dealt with by the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA).
Commissioned by Gusenbauer
Erhard Grossnigg, CEO of Signa Prime and Signa Development from December 2023 to April 2024, recently made some remarkable statements about the Signa complex. Grossnigg, 79, a close friend and business partner of Signa investor Hans Peter Haselsteiner, 81, had been commissioned with a restructuring by Benko's millionaire advisor and Signa Supervisory Board member Alfred Gusenbauer:
"Alfred Gusenbauer approached me a few days before my appointment as CEO and asked me whether I thought I was up to the task and I immediately agreed," Grossnigg went on record. He did not know Signa founder Benko personally at the time. "But I did know a few of the supervisory board members and investors."
"Only Harti Weirather called back"
According to Grossnigg, there was a time window of two to three weeks in December 2023 to raise the money he had "calculated himself" - 300 million euros - "from the shareholders." However, the company already owed investors, including "a wealthy Brazilian family" or "Mr. Haselsteiner", "around 5.5 billion euros".
As the new CEO, he "had to write to the shareholders several times" about the fresh millions, explained the former restructuring director: "Only today do I know that this would not have been enough. I didn't get the 300 million either. Only one investor, namely (former ski racer) Harti Weirather, called me back. He told me that he understood my request but didn't want to invest any more."
"... without exception overpaid"
What Grossnigg had to say about René Benko's role in the Signa Group is fascinating: "My personal opinion is that before my time at Signa, all important decisions were made by René Benko. From my point of view, all employees and managers were bought by René Benko, by which I mean that they were all overpaid without exception."
The manager then went on to specify as a witness under an obligation to tell the truth: "I am certain that René Benko had to be informed of every important decision and determined what the board members had to sign."
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