11-12-2010, 09:31 PM
Madoff Trustee Launches $19.6 Billion Lawsuit
December 11th, 2010 Via: CBS News:
As Saturday’s deadline looms to file claims in the recovery of assets from Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, the trustee seeking money for the swindler’s victims has sued an Austrian banker, claiming she masterminded a 23-year conspiracy that facilitated Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and funneled billions of dollars into her “deliberately Byzantine” network of European banks.
The trustee, Irving Picard, is seeking $19.6 billion in damages from Sonja Kohn, whom his lawsuit names as the “mastermind” of Medici Enterprise.
The New York Times reports that the 157-page complaint filed today in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan is the first by Picard to invoke the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Picard describes a European “labyrinth” of banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, shell companies and offshore trusts, which absorbed billions of dollars from Madoff.
“Sham entities” established and controlled by Kohn, in New York and Europe, “had or have no legitimate business purpose and existed or exist only to receive stolen Customer Property from Madoff,” the complaint states.
The complaint also says Kohn received tens of millions of dollars in “kickbacks” and referral fees from Madoff, and that about half of the funds Picard is suing to recover — $9.1 billion out of $19.6 billion — is directly linked to Kohn and her family members.
December 11th, 2010 Via: CBS News:
As Saturday’s deadline looms to file claims in the recovery of assets from Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, the trustee seeking money for the swindler’s victims has sued an Austrian banker, claiming she masterminded a 23-year conspiracy that facilitated Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and funneled billions of dollars into her “deliberately Byzantine” network of European banks.
The trustee, Irving Picard, is seeking $19.6 billion in damages from Sonja Kohn, whom his lawsuit names as the “mastermind” of Medici Enterprise.
The New York Times reports that the 157-page complaint filed today in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan is the first by Picard to invoke the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Picard describes a European “labyrinth” of banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, shell companies and offshore trusts, which absorbed billions of dollars from Madoff.
“Sham entities” established and controlled by Kohn, in New York and Europe, “had or have no legitimate business purpose and existed or exist only to receive stolen Customer Property from Madoff,” the complaint states.
The complaint also says Kohn received tens of millions of dollars in “kickbacks” and referral fees from Madoff, and that about half of the funds Picard is suing to recover — $9.1 billion out of $19.6 billion — is directly linked to Kohn and her family members.
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