Major Austrian Investor Tied to Madoff Vanishes

Sonja Kohn, the well-known founder of Austria’s Bank Medici, has disappeared from public view, the New York Times reports, after Medici lost investors $2.1 billion in the Bernie Madoff mess. Kohn was a good friend of Madoff’s, and aggressively pushed his wares. She may be hiding out of embarrassment or, some say, fear: Russian oligarchs were among her top customers.

“With Russian oligarchs as clients, she might have reason to be afraid,” said one Viennese banker who knows Kohn socially. Kohn doesn’t want to speak with the press, said a spokesman for Bank Medici, now being run by regulators. “She is a victim as well,” he added, refusing to comment on whether “Austria’s woman on Wall Street” was in hiding. (More Austria stories.)