Medici lawyer says Kohn didn't get Madoff payments

By Martha Graybow and Boris Groendahl

NEW YORK/VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian fund manager Sonja Kohn did not receive any kickbacks from Bernard Madoff to steer Bank Medici customer funds to the swindler's investment business, a Medici lawyer said on Friday.

"There were no Madoff payments to Kohn. There were no kickbacks," lawyer Andreas Theiss told Reuters.

Theiss reiterated prior statements that Kohn, whose Bank Medici ran several funds that funneled at least $3.3 billion to Madoff, was one of Madoff's biggest victims.

He was responding to a Wall Street Journal report that said Kohn was under investigation by U.S., UK and Austrian prosecutors who believe she was paid more than $40 million in kickbacks to steer investors to the jailed swindler's funds.

The newspaper said prosecutors believe Madoff paid kickbacks to Kohn through separate companies she controlled. Theiss said he did not know the companies mentioned, but said Kohn did not have an operating role in any of them.

Kohn owns 75 percent of Medici, which has renamed itself 20.20 Medici AG. UniCredit SpA holds the other 25 percent stake.

The Journal said that details of the Kohn investigations are contained in court affidavits and documents collected by Austrian prosecutors.

U.S. and UK prosecutors filed the affidavits to request information from their Austrian counterparts to further their own investigations, the Journal said. The separate probes are at an early stage, the newspaper said.