Austria’s ‘Woman on Wall St.’ and Madoff

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and JULIA WERDIGIERPublished: January 6, 2009 VIENNA —

With an aggressive style that stood out in the staid world of Austrian banking even more than her bouffant red wig, Sonja Kohn made few friends gathering billions for Bernard L. Madoff from wealthy investors in Russia and across Europe.

Now, she has even fewer. Mrs. Kohn has dropped out of sight, leaving the firm she founded, Bank Medici, in the hands of Austrian regulators, who took it over last week.

Embarrassment from investing heavily with Mr. Madoff could explain wanting to disappear from public view. But another theory widely repeated by those who know Mrs. Kohn is that she may be afraid of some particularly displeased investors: Russian oligarchs whose money made up a chunk of the $2.1 billion that Bank Medici invested with Mr. Madoff.

Read on...

Nice to know the good company the UofT pension plan was investing with.....Russian Oligarchs. I guess a piddling little $4 or $5 million investment doesn't require any due diligence. Drop in the bucket. Tom