Swiss entrepreneur in Thurgau and coffee king Arthur Eugster has reportedly lost CHF 650 million in the collapse of Rene Benko’s Signa empire—one of the largest individual financial losses in Swiss history. As public prosecutors in Austria probe the inner circle of Benko’s fraudulent network, two familiar names from past scandals resurface: Robert Schimanko and Thomas Limberger. Both men, now linked to Benko’s foundations.
This report investigates the extensive Austrian connections to two of the largest financial fraud cases in U.S. history: the Manhattan Investment Fund (MIF) fraud and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Austrian financiers Ronny Pecik and Robert Schimanko, through their M&A Privatbank, played key roles in the European feeder network that facilitated these financial crimes.