According to “profil”, the Kurz company was missing from the corresponding list of creditors of Signa SFS. When contacted by the news magazine, a spokesman for the Kurz company confirmed that the claim had not been made. This will not happen in the future either.
At the end of January, the ex-chancellor’s SK Management GmbH announced that it wanted to assert an outstanding fee claim of 1.65 million euros in the insolvency proceedings. Registration should have been completed by March 6th. That didn’t happen. It remains to be seen how much of Signa SFS’s million-dollar claim might still be obtained, but according to the magazine report, probably not much.
Networked, if not friends
According to the information, 5.7 million euros in claims were filed in the bankruptcy proceedings, most of which were initially disputed by the insolvency administrator. There were still 213,000 euros as assets when registering.
Kurz and Benko were at least considered to be connected, if not friends. The entrepreneur also accompanied the then Chancellor on state visits to the Arab world.
In any case, Signa SFS provided financing advisory services for other parts of the Signa Group – for example as a central communication point with banks. SK Management’s fee claim, in turn, is said to come from brokering an investment worth $100 million. For this, the Kurz company charged a total of 2.4 million euros, of which 750,000 euros were said to have been paid, according to “profil”.
Gusenbauer is demanding 6.3 million euros
Former chancellor and SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer has also submitted a million-dollar claim to the court. According to media reports, his consulting company has claims totaling a good 6.3 million euros. Gusenbauer has submitted the claims to another Signa company and has the chance to save almost a third of them.
Things are becoming increasingly tight financially for the Signa real estate group. An insolvency loan of 100 million euros urgently needs to be put on the table during Holy Week, otherwise there will be an emergency sale of valuable properties. “Maybe we’ll get money this week. If it doesn’t come, then the quota for the creditors will look worse, because then we have to sell off properties through the insolvency administrator quickly and therefore cheaper,” said redeveloper Erhard Grossnigg, according to “Der Standard”.
