Perhaps saving the best for last, Madoff trustee Irving Picard filed a lawsuit against Sonja Kohn, an Austrian banker, seeking $19.6 billion in damages and accusing her of masterminding a 23-year conspiracy that played a central role in financing the gigantic Ponzi scheme.  "In Sonja Kohn, Madoff found a criminal soul mate, whose greed and dishonest inventiveness equaled his own."

    Allegations of RICO Violations.  This is the first lawsuit brought by Mr. Picard to include allegations that defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO.  Ms. Kohn led what the trustee’s complaint called the Medici Enterprise, a labyrinth of European banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, offshore trusts and shell companies. 

Mr. Picard contended that billions of dollars of other people’s money poured into Mr. Madoff’s fraud through these conduits - and tens of millions poured out in the form of fees and "kickbacks" to Ms. Kohn from Mr. Madoff.  The 157-page complaint claimed that about half the fraud’s stolen funds - $9.1 billion out of an estimated $19.6 billion - was directly attributable to Ms. Kohn, her family members and their elaborate portfolio of so-called feeder funds. 

    Who's Sonja Kohn?   Sporting a bouffant red wig and a combative personality,  Ms. Kohn, now 62, stood out in the discreet world of European private banking - using her strong connections in Austrian financial and government circles.  She speaks at least 4 languages and possesses a gold-plated Rolodex of socialites, industrialists and financiers.  She's based in Vienna, traveled frequently to the Continent’s financial centers in Zurich, Milan and London, and more recently developed a base in the offshore hedge fund centers in the Caribbean.

Like other major figures in Mr. Madoff’s circle, Ms. Kohn promised clients she could gain access to his funds while rival bankers could not, and frequently boasted of her close personal friendship with him.  She allegedly "characterized herself as 'Austria's woman on Wall Street' and the gateway to Madoff." 

Including the lawsuit against Ms. Kohn, Mr. Picard has filed actions seeking to recover more than $50 billion for eligible victims.  Thus far, he’s recovered about $2.6 billion through settlements and asset sales.  Mr. Picard has until tomorrow, Saturday - the second anniversary of Mr. Madoff’s arrest - to file claims against any entity that withdrew cash profits from the Ponzi scheme or that may have played a role in facilitating the fraud. 

    More on Sonja Kohn.   A Vienna native, Ms. Kohn first met Mr. Madoff in 1985 when she was living in Monsey, N.Y., and working as a stock broker at Merrill Lynch. She was introduced to Mr. Madoff through an executive at Cohmad Securities, a Madoff-related brokerage firm that has also been sued by Mr. Picard.

The lawsuit claims that Ms. Kohn knew from the beginning that Mr. Madoff was a fraud, and that she received secret kickbacks from him in exchange for feeding him cash from other investors. It contends that she had a secret agreement with Mr. Madoff in which he paid her a flat fee — usually more than $6.5 million annually — to solicit investors.

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