Personal Involvement With Entrepreneurial Mavericks

“Berger has a lot of experience with entrepreneurial boundary crossers. At that time, he invested several million Euros in another young entrepreneur who often operated on the edge of legality and insolvency: Lars Windhorst and his Sapinda group, which later became known to a broader public as an investor in the soccer club Hertha BSC.”

“One person who acted like a catalyst for Benko's career is Karl Kovarik, a very wealthy heir to a gas station empire, who financed the young Innsbruck businessman after Benko had previously sold a penthouse apartment to Kovarik's brother-in-law. The gas station king invested about 25 million euros in Benko's first company, Immofina, renamed Signa in 2006. Benko and Kovarik each held half.”