13/09/2013
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NEW ALLEGATIONS MADOFF PONZI SCHEME ENABLED VIA AUSTRIAN OFFICIALS
September 13th, 2013
VIENNA, AUSTRIA – A previously unpublished dossier retained by a senior Austrian bank official alleges that Bernard Madoff, the American former stockbroker, investment advisor, financier, and operator of a Ponzi scheme considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S. history, was aided in his criminal activities for years by a complex network of officials and companies centered around the Austrian capital of Vienna. Today this matter was presented for discussion in the Austrian Parliament by the FPÖ MP Hans JoergJenewein,who demanded answers from the government based on allegations in the book by British journalist Michael Leidig.
Jenewein said he had “decided to raise all the key allegations and documents in Parliament in order to provide immunity from prosecution, and bring the debate into the public sphere”.
The question, parts of which are in English, can be viewed here:http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/J/J_15942/imfname_323054.pdf
Leidig was given exclusive access to the paperwork, noting that it identified as many as thirty-three senior banking officials that had questions to answer over their Madoff links, ranging from former Bank Austria chairman Gerhard Randa to the founder of Bank Medici, Sonja Kohn.They are included in the Parliamentary question and also in a letter hand delivered to Austrian prosecutors from a lawyer representing the US trustee liquidating the Madoff estate. It alleges that Bank Austria officials assisted Madoff to circumvent regulators and arranged structures to feed as much money as possible into his scheme, laundering the kickbacks through a complicated network centered around Kohn. The allegations were the basis of the trustees’ RICO filing which has been strengthened by the new evidence.
Leidig said: “In total there were thousands of highly confidential documents, much of it detailing activities that would have been very damaging for the bank and related institutions if published. Simply releasing it on WikiLeaks would have been irresponsible and caused unnecessary damage. Instead it was filtered and put together as material for the book: Pyramid Games.http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Games-ebook/dp/B00F53ACGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379083742&sr=8-1&keywords=pyramid+games+leidig
A Bank Austria whistleblower identified in Leidig's report by the pseudonym “The Last Mohican”, or TLM, attempted to pass along the paperwork to his superiors, urging them to act over Madoff. Instead, he was sent home on permanent paid leave, still an employee of the bank but unable to talk, and not working. Leidig declined to speculate on how he obtained the man’s files but said: “They were lying around in an empty room in an office with thousands of staff for a year; anyone could have picked them up.”
The paperwork includes email traffic between senior bank officials, internal audit reports and Madoff fund prospectuses, including graphs and tables produced by Bank Austria staff relating to its extensive Madoff portfolio. Leidig said: “I believe the paperwork demonstrates the criminal energy invested into creating a structure designed to avoid regulations, and the complexity that made it impossible that those who built it could not have known what they were doing. It shows that Bernard Madoff did not act alone, and he succeeded in his fraud for years, due to the support of Randa, Kohn, and a network of Austrian officials eager to reap the benefits of supporting his cause. Leidig was able to confirm the validity of the documents with certain unnamed Austrian officials.
Leidig's report was made with the intention of lifting the veil on what the trustee called the ‘Bank Austria Conspiracy’ that allowed Madoff’s criminal activities to go on, undetected, for so many years. Based on what he had read in the book, the MP Jenewein said he hoped “international pressure might help to bring more action to investigate the individuals active in the network, and make them fully accountable for their part in supporting one of the largest financial frauds in history.”
Michael Leidig is a British journalist based in Vienna, Austria, who since 1986 has worked as a foreign correspondent, publisher, author, editor, photographer and broadcaster. His career highlights include a series of investigative reports focusing on crime and corruption, such as several stories tracking down N**i war criminals that were published in the London based Times and Telegraph, and ABC’s NIGHTLINE; and the trafficking of women reports which won several awards. He was also the editor of Austria's first English language newspaper, Austria Today, and a news anchor on Austrian radio's English language service BDR.
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