A 49-year-old manager was arrested in Berlin in connection with the bankruptcy of companies in the Signa Group owned by the Austrian real estate investor René Benko. The public prosecutor’s office said it was suspected of infidelity in four cases.
The man is said to have worked as a manager for several Signa Group companies in Germany and Austria. In 2023 he is said to have been responsible for a newly founded company that was supposed to further develop a property. The company is said to have received earmarked loans totaling ten million euros.
Accused is not in custody
The 49-year-old is then said to have transferred money to other Signa Group companies in four transfers between January and May 2023 without authorization and without the lenders’ knowledge. The large part of it is said to have not been repaid. The arrest warrant against the accused was suspended due to strict reporting requirements, so that he is not in custody.
The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) investigated extensively, interviewed numerous witnesses and evaluated several million emails, bank, contract and accounting documents, according to the public prosecutor’s office. There was also an intensive exchange with the Munich public prosecutor’s office and the economic and corruption public prosecutor’s office in Vienna.
Benko is suspected of having hidden assets so that creditors, insolvency administrators and authorities have no access to them. The Signa Group also owned the KaDeWe luxury department store in Berlin, as well as several branches of the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group.
