Plugging Holes

Benko’s Signa: “Just turn on the vacuum cleaner right away”

When plugging holes within Benko’s empire, the “vacuum cleaner” was put to use.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com/Montage)

At Signa, there seems to have been almost nothing that didn’t exist: The billion-euro conglomerate, which stands for the biggest bankruptcy in postwar European history, didn’t just rely on a shadow account called “Bierdeckel.” Funds were siphoned off within the conglomerate via the “vacuum cleaner” scheme and used to plug the holes. The “Krone” has the details.

On Sunday morning, Wolfgang Peschorn, the Republic’s attorney, lost his temper on the ORF program “Pressestunde.” The president of the Financial Procurator’s Office recommended taking a closer look at the “money carousels” during the investigation into the Signa bankruptcies surrounding the Benko case: “The likelihood that there are several is enormous.” And: As a representative of all taxpayers, he wondered whether “no one had looked into it” on the high-profile supervisory boards of the Signa corporations associated with former Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.

Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office Investigates
In fact, new documents obtained by the “Krone” reveal just how amateurishly a billion-euro conglomerate called Signa was run right up until the big crash at the end of 2023.

There was—in 2014—a supervisory board meeting chaired by Gusenbauer that lasted a mere ten minutes.

When plugging holes within Benko’s empire, the “vacuum cleaner” was put to use.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com/Montage)

There was—no joke!—not just one liquidity plan called “Bierdeckel,” on which financial juggler René Benko and a key finance manager documented and steered the group’s cash flows in a sort of “shadow ledger.”

Excerpt from “Beer Coaster 2023”: Benko and a finance manager had their own system(Bild: zVg)

156-page investigative report
There was also a kind of “cash pooling” within the Signa Group, referred to internally as the “vacuum cleaner.” This was used to “suck up” funds from group companies and distribute them within the Signa Group. This apparently served to plug financial holes. This is evident from a 156-page investigative report by the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, which focuses on the Munich Bahnhofsplatz project—and a payment of 120 million euros. The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating René Benko and other former Signa managers on suspicion of breach of trust and fraud. The accused deny the allegations; the presumption of innocence applies.

The scheme was known internally to a select circle of Signa employees. The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office states verbatim: “This practice of transferring funds upward to the parent company—in this case, Signa Prime Selection AG—was also referred to internally at Signa as the ‘vacuum cleaner.’

As soon as the money arrives, the vacuum cleaner must immediately transfer it to Prime—please, RLB NÖ Vienna!

Ein Signa-Finanzmanager

For example, a finance manager wrote the following regarding “upcoming large inflows of funds”:

“As soon as the money arrives, the vacuum cleaner must immediately transfer it to Prime—please, RLB NÖ Vienna!”

Or: Please make sure that “the vacuum cleaner’s battery is charged so it can start vacuuming right away.”

Or: “Start up the vacuum cleaner right away.”

The “Cash Tiller”
The Signa world of “entrepreneurial genius” René Benko apparently functioned in a way that was as simple as it was strange. The only problem is: A host of investigators, auditors, and lawyers believe this form of financial management is clearly illegal. One really has to wonder why no supervisory board took action against “beer coasters” and “vacuum cleaners”: Although “cash manager” René Benko had not held an executive position within the Signa Group since 2013, he himself, together with select managers, planned on a beer coaster where the Signa “vacuum cleaner” was supposed to suck up liquidity. This is quite remarkable for a conglomerate whose various stock corporations each had a different ownership structure.

Profits on Paper
The “plug-one-hole-with-another” policy within the opaque Signa conglomerate could well have raised eyebrows, according to investigators. Insiders are hardly surprised. After all, even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the shift in interest rates, the group had in some cases been paying more than ten percent interest to a lender. The cause of the liquidity problems has also been clear to observers for some time: The Signa Group’s profits did not arise because it took in more money than it spent; rather, profits were generated on paper by revaluing real estate with the help of select appraisal agencies. Precisely because of these revaluation gains, the group lacked liquidity in many areas: Revaluing real estate does not create new money.

Strict rules apply to liquidity management. Board members are personally liable for legal violations. Not just the “beer-coaster” and “vacuum cleaner” managers—but also those who may not have looked closely enough.