At first glance, Sonja Kohn, a short, stout, red wig-wearing 62-year-old grandmother and banker from Vienna, Austria hardly appears to be one of the greatest financial crooks ever, let alone the repeated recipient of a “big hug and a kiss” from her “criminal soul mate,” Bernie Madoff. Kohn, according to bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, may be even worse than the now-jailed Madoff. He claims she and her family continue to steal with impunity and hide millions of dollars taken from Madoff victims, in spite of the ongoing U.S. criminal investigation.
a co-conspirator with Madoff for 23 years, Kohn allegedly raised more than $9.1 billion of the $19.6 billion in cash actually invested with—and lost by—the Ponzi king. That means, according to calculations by Picard, she raised 46 cents of every dollar Bernie stole.
The allegations made against Kohn and her 55 co-defendants in the 160-page complaint could invigorate or trigger criminal investigations in Austria, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, and the U.S.
“In Sonja Kohn, Madoff found a criminal soul mate, whose greed and dishonest inventiveness equaled his own,” Picard said in a statement. “We believe that even more information regarding the full scope of this criminal enterprise will be revealed through discovery.” Already, the lawyers know Kohn was a chameleon. “Sonja Kohn went by many names and operated under many guises, creating an international network of spurious investmententities and masterminding an illegal scheme,” said Timothy S. Pfeifer, who supervised the suit for Picard.
Kohn runs her family as a criminal enterprise, according to the complaint filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that seeks treble damages ($58.8 billion) on a claim of $19.6 billion.
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