KOLE
VIENNA
U.S. and British investigators pocket joined Austrian prosecutors in examining imaginable ties between a Vienna capitalize head and disgraced capitalist Bernard Madoff, whose multibillion-dollar Ponzi game wiped out-dated thousands of investors and charities worldwide, an appropriate said Monday.
Gerhard Jarosch, spokesman in the course of the Vienna openly prosecutor’s charge, told The Associated Press his charge is aiding the U.S. Justice Department and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office in divide up investigations of Bank Medici AG and its chairwoman, Sonja Kohn.
Both Kohn and Medici also pocket been the distinct of a wile examine in Austria since February, Jarosch said, stressing that Kohn has not been charged with any hooligan wrongdoing. and British authorities in their investigations of Mrs.
“I can confirmation that we are assisting the U.S.
Kohn in linking with the Madoff anyhow,” he told AP. Jarosch declined to expatiate or reveal whether Kohn has been questioned close at hand investigators from either surroundings.
Kohn, 60, has an unlisted phone loads and could not be reached in the course of talk about Monday.
“It’s valid not honestly,” Theiss told AP. Her attorney, Andreas Theiss, said she was not giving media interviews – but he insisted she had no in person dealings with Madoff.
“There are some investors who forgotten hard cash.
Even the Kohn forefathers forgotten a stacks of hard cash, exactly finish,” he said. “That wasn’t caused close at hand Ms. That was caused close at hand Madoff.”
“Ms. Kohn. Kohn is saying she not at any in unison a all the same, everlastingly got hard cash from Mr. Madoff.
and there’s no attestation of any payments like that,” Theiss added. involvement in the anyhow.
Prosecutors dream up it likely that Madoff paid Kohn commissions in barney in the course of allegedly funneling billions of dollars in European investments to Madoff, according to a themselves with acquaintance of U.S. The themselves spoke on configuration of anonymity because the examine was evolving.
Madoff was sentenced endure week to 150 years in lock-up in the course of swindling thousands of investors in a dreary Ponzi game.
In London, the Serious Fraud Office would not talk about, saying it does not reckoning out-dated suspects until they are formally charged. Attorney’s Office in the course of the Southern District of New York also declined to talk about. A spokeswoman in the course of the U.S.
Vienna-based Bank Medici disclosed in December that it had suffered enormous losses it blamed on Madoff. It said not absolutely all of its Herald USA Fund and Herald Luxemburg Fund – with a entirety bulk of $2.1 billion – were invested with Madoff.
In later interviews with Austrian media, Kohn has characterized herself as long confabulation of Madoff’s biggest victims and has described Medici’s nightmare as a in person and maven blow.
Kohn, a erstwhile confidante to Austria’s economics and original to affairs ministers and the Vienna Stock Exchange, owned 75 percent of Bank Medici, which recently changed its fame to 20.20 Medici AG.
In in unison a all the same May, the Financial Market Authority – Austria’s better pecuniary administrative officials – revoked Bank Medici’s banking document. Bank Austria, a portion of Italy’s UniCredit SpA, held the original 25 percent.
The Journal said prosecutors dream up it likely Kohn may pocket acclimatized the Medici funds as “feeders” that supplied Madoff with an estimated $3.5 billion from European investors. In repayment, it said, they rely upon she was paid more than $40 million.
“Her chore was not to cause corporation,” he said.
But Theiss, her attorney, said Kohn headed Medici’s administrative convocation, not the bank itself. “Her chore was on the other hand to dominance and to quell and to fake as a foreman – not to till at the cover-up.”
Carolin Treichl, a Bank Medici spokeswoman, denied the bank was enmeshed with in any wrongdoing.
“The actuate itself has suffered unendurable damage” because of Madoff, she told the AP.
Officials pocket refused to unfetter affidavits or other records relating to the anyhow, citing the evolving investigations and Austria’s punctilious concealment laws. Justice Department was investigating violently $32 million in payments that Bernard L.
The Austrian newspaper Der Standard said the U.S. Madoff Investment Securities LLC allegedly made between 1998 and 2008 to Infovaleur, Inc., a New York actuate the exegesis said is owned close at hand Kohn.
Prospectuses in the course of the Medici funds from in unison a all the same to in unison a all the same being examined close at hand prosecutors made no commend of Madoff, Der Standard said.
That’s because they were invested in S&P 500 stocks, Theiss said, contending that Medici and Kohn pocket in all respects been targeted close at hand frustrated Austrian investors doing whatever they can to advance to reclaim some of their losses.
Also Monday, the French prosecutor’s charge said it has opened a prodromus inquisition into losses the Credit Industriel and Commercial bank says it suffered straight membership recompense to dealings with Madoff.
“They hunger to unchanged up apply pressure on on her,” he said.
CIC is believed to pocket forgotten nigh $150 million as a outcome of its participation in 2006 with the Bayern Landesbank and Ixis bank, from in unison a all the same to in unison a all the same renamed Natixis, in a high-return pecuniary deal. The investments close at hand the banks made their MO to an distillate reference the Madoff assemble.
A French analytical authority, speaking on configuration of anonymity because the examine is underway, says the observe also looks into the capacity close at hand Ixis and the Bayern Landesbank.
A federal value in New York rejected Madoff’s pleas in the course of leniency and sentenced the 71-year-old on June 29 to go at the end of one’s tether with the be found of his dash in lock-up in the course of an “extraordinarily evil” swizz that took a staggering loss on thousands of victims. Vincent Asselineau, a spokesperson in the course of CIC, had no talk about.
The dreary Ponzi game gush close at hand Madoff since at least the antique 1990s demolished the dash savings of thousands of people, wrecked charities and shook dependence in the U.S. regulatory organized more often than not.
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Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this information from New York and AP Writer Pierre-Antoine Souchard contributed from Paris.
