Benko’s lawyer Norbert Wess and the WKStA also confirm this. According to “Ö1” it is about a loan from an Austrian bank for 25 million euros, which Benko is said to have concealed Signa’s economic situation when it was extended last summer.
In response to an APA request, the WKStA confirmed in the afternoon that Benko, a Signa company and another person were being investigated “for fraud due to alleged pretense of solvency when extending bank loans.”
Wess confirms that there is a case against Benko, but does not comment on the content. He has inspected the files and knows the allegations made therein and rejects them as “completely baseless”, said the lawyer in the “Ö1-Mittagsjournal” and at the request of the APA. “We will only comment on the content to the WKStA,” said Wess to the APA. This should happen quickly.
In the “Ö1-Mittagsjournal” lawyer Johannes Zink said that his law firm had submitted a statement of facts on behalf of his clients. This involves the accusation or suspicion that money was borrowed from banks and investors at a time when the Signa Group was already insolvent. From the clients’ point of view, it appears that Benko himself acted as the de facto managing director for the Signa Group, conducted financing discussions himself and also conducted correspondence with the banks himself.
For Benko, this is not the first case that has been brought against him personally. The Munich public prosecutor’s office is investigating suspicions of money laundering, which Benko’s Munich lawyer Florian Ufer has rejected as “baseless”.
This article was updated at 2:30 p.m.
