By Matthias Wabl
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sonja Kohn, the founder of Bank Medici AG sued for $58.8 billion for her alleged role in Bernard Madoff?s Ponzi scheme, said she didn?t know anything about the fraud and sometimes would like to vanish.
?Often I would just love to disappear into thin air, that?s true,? Kohn told Zurich-based Das Magazin in an interview published April 2. ?But I never went into hiding.?
In all, Madoff trustee Irving Picard has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits seeking $100 billion from 4,000 defendants, partly to compensate investors in the scheme who lost $20 billion in principal. The trustee will use any extra money he gets to pay creditors who provided services to Madoff?s firm, and to give investors some of the fake profit they thought they had earned, Picard said on March 14.
In the interview, her first since news of Madoff?s crimes broke in December 2008, Kohn told Daniel Ammann she had no inkling that any of the broker?s dealings were dishonest.
?I never heard or saw anything that might have seemed suspicious,? she was quoted as saying. ?There were no red flags, no warning signs, no misgivings.?
The lawsuit filed in December names Kohn, Bank Medici, Bank Austria, UniCredit SpA and dozens of other parties. It seeks $19.6 billion, tripled under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It?s the biggest claim filed by Picard, who has sued investors, banks, feeder funds and others for money to pay investors with valid demands.
Close to Madoff
Picard said in his 153-page complaint against Kohn that she told investors she was very close to Madoff and could deliver higher returns on investments made through his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. He alleged Madoff was secretly paying Kohn, who knew Madoff was running a fraud, to funnel money into the Ponzi scheme.
Kohn denied she was ever paid any ?kickbacks? by Madoff, according to the Magazin report. ?The only thing I?m allowed to say is this: all activities were in accordance with the law. These were normal business practices common in the financial- services industry.?
She said she introduced professionals to Madoff, and those people were ?grateful. It was up to them how to use those introductions.?
Shortly before Madoff confessed, in December 2008, Kohn withdrew $536 million from Madoff?s firm, Picard said in his lawsuit, also alleging she took steps to hide her connection to the money manager.
Kohn said in the interview the funds ?were directly transferred by HSBC to investors who were independent from us.? She said she and her family never sold their own Madoff holdings. ?In March 2008, we doubled our family investments. Unfortunately.?
Family Holdings
Speaking about Madoff?s business practices, Kohn said ?he played hard-to-get? for potential investors. ?When you asked him about asset management, he would say: ?That?s not my main business.? Only later he would say: ?Okay, maybe, as an exception, but not too much money please.??
Kohn, a 62-year-old Zurich resident, wishes she never met Madoff in the first place, Das Magazin said.
?I would thank God if he had kept me from ever coming near Madoff,? Kohn said. ?I feel infinitely disappointed, deceived and deserted.?
Madoff is now serving a 150-year prison term.
--Editors: Paul Verschuur, Dylan Griffiths
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthias Wabl in Zurich at mwabl@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net
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