The multi-billion dollar bankruptcy of the Laura Private Foundation on Wednesday marks the beginning of the dismantling of the Benko family’s well-filled treasure chest.
The fact is that René Benko created a lucrative parallel world for himself when he founded the Laura Private Foundation in 2006/2007, which he apparently fed with his generous income from the Signa Group.
Now the Signa founder and prisoner in the Innsbruck prison is trying to work as a carpenter. At least that’s what the magazine reported Trend. It is not known whether Benko has any talent for this.
Assets almost halved
As reported, his Laura private foundation is confronted with claims totaling 1.59 billion euros. Although she also has considerable assets, the claims of her creditors cannot be met with them. The book values (acquisition values) of the investments in companies and the receivables from companies, including securities deposits, are estimated at 628.33 million euros. Due to high value adjustments, the bottom line is that only market values of 327.21 million euros remain.
Whether these assets are ultimately resilient and whether corresponding proceeds can be achieved for the creditors will become apparent in the course of these complex bankruptcy proceedings.
For experts, however, the figures presented must be questioned. The key question is: Did the Laura Private Foundation sell or move assets to other spheres in the past year?
dispute transactions
“These legal transactions can be contested at least six months to a year back,” says Gerhard Weinhofer from Creditreform to the KURIER. “If you get the impression that these transactions have caused damage to your creditors, you can take legal action against it.”
The largest single asset is Laura Asset GmbH, with the value of the assets having shrunk from 213 million euros to 84.5 million euros. It’s no secret that it deals with the acquisition and management of real estate. The many other value adjustments are striking.
Independent assessors
A claim against the real estate company BER, Charlotten-Straße 61 KG (in Berlin) was devalued from 59.3 million to 24.51 million euros and the claim against the company Villa Sphere Ovest (Garda Lake Villas) was reduced by 10.47 million euros.
“I don’t generally care about this paper with the acquisition values and the market values, because in the insolvency proceedings we will certainly commission our own independent appraisers to evaluate the assets,” says Weinhofer. “The creditors expect a detailed examination and listing of the actual assets.” Addendum: “I expect that all the investment companies will slide into insolvency. This means that they will be examined on several levels.”
Finance is also investigating
Meanwhile, the insolvent Laura private foundation is also in the financial sights. According to the filing, the Treasury Department’s Anti-Fraud Office recently informed her attorney that she had opened an investigation into the Laura Private Foundation. As early as February 3rd, Soko Signa asked Finanz to hand over all files relating to the use of Villa N, the Benko family’s noble villa in Innsbruck-Igls. As can be seen from the investigation file, the Finanz has issued liability notices for capital gains tax (KESt) for December 2021 to February 2025. The capital gains tax claimed for Villa N alone is around 4.5 million euros. According to the records, the case is disputed. Meanwhile, the total tax claim in Austria is said to be around 30.5 million euros.