Sonja Kohn

Sonja Kohn (born Turk; * August 5, 1948 in Vienna) is an Austrian banker.

Life

Sonja Kohn was the daughter of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and grew up in Vienna. In the 1970s they began to operate jointly with her husband Erwin Kohn in the import - export business, which led also to Milan. In 1985, she moved to New York, where they lived in force as orthodox Jewish community Monsey.

In the U.S., Sonja Kohn and her husband founded the U.S. fund company Eurovaleur Inc., whose president is. Sonja Kohn was known in New York as "Austria 's woman on Wall Street". In the 1990s she returned to Vienna, where she worked with Gerhard Randa ( Bank Austria ).

Already in 1984 they founded the Vienna Bank Medici, in which it held three-quarters of the shares, and the Supervisory Board projects. After the Madoff scandal, the bank was revoked in 2009 the concession.

Sonja Kohn sits on the advisory board of a regionally based venture capital fund of the Italian development bank Finlombarda Gestioni SGR. Kohn had until 2006 also a consulting contract with the Vienna Stock Exchange for international cooperation.

Madoff case

In December 2010, Sonja Kohn was implicated in the affair of the American billion fraudster Bernard L. Madoff. She was accused of a time to have been Madoff's most important business partner in Europe. Also in Austria determined by the judiciary in this matter due to suspected fraud. Because of the large scope of the case of two prosecutors is processed.

Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard sued Sonja Kohn, Bank Medici and the other ( for the bank less important people) in New York for damages in the amount of 19.6 billion dollars ( 15 billion euros) - the largest single sum as a result of this scandal. Overall, dozens of lawsuits amounting to a total of around 50 billion dollars have been introduced.

On October 18, 2013 Sonja Kohn won a landmark proceedings in London, Picard had filed against it, clearly .. Picard sued Kohn had for payments they had received from Madoff for their services. The judge in the London High Court spoke of " baseless allegations ," closed the case and came to the conclusion that the payments to Kohn had been " nothing more than a reasonable compensation for the legal services it performs ." Kohn had " fully honest traded " .. The judge also noted Kohn was also a victim of Madoff's fraud and have own assets lost. Her family lost in the opinion 11.5 million dollars. It was painful to see how a claimant could put completely false and unjust accusations in the world - "and how the media continue to spread these allegations as if they were the truth and not just the allegations of a party ," Kohn said.

Honors

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