Austrian Bank Medici founder and Madoff investor Sonja Kohn drops out of sight

Kohn was involved in seeking investments from "Russians, Ukrainians and Israelis." WMR was the first to report on RUIM - the Russian - Ukrainian -Israel Mafia, for which it now appears that Bernard Madoff is a major kingpin.

The Judeo-Russian Mafia: From the Gulag to Brooklyn to World Dominion

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. More