The Ingbe foundation linked to real estate tycoon René Benko's family had stored gold bars worth about 14 million euros, plus one million dollars and one million Swiss francs in cash at a Liechtenstein bank. Two safe deposit boxes were opened in the presence of a notary, according to Kronen Zeitung. The assets are now secured.
Insolvency administrators have long searched for the remaining billions from the collapsed Signa real estate empire. The Ingbe foundation, named after Benko's mother Ingeborg and based in Liechtenstein, topped the list of suspected hiding places.
In January, Benko's insolvency administrator obtained a provisional injunction to freeze about 50 million euros in foundation assets. The bank was unaware of the contents of the safe deposit boxes. They were opened and found to contain gold bars and cash totaling the equivalent of around 16 million euros.
The assets have been transferred to the foundation's depot and secured. A court decision is expected in Liechtenstein within the next one to two months. Investors and investigators had long eyed the Ingbe foundation, as well as the Arual foundation—named backward after Benko's daughter Laura—as potential family wealth repositories.
In March last year, the Ingbe foundation sold 363.5 kilograms of gold from a safe at VP Bank for about 31 million euros. René Benko has been in pretrial detention since January 2025 and was convicted in two proceedings for harming creditors, though the judgments are not yet final.
