Madoff Paid Kickbacks to Austrian Manager, Report Says

A former Austrian fund manager is being invested for possibly getting paid millions in kickbacks to funnel billions in investments to Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site.

American, British and Austrian prosecutors are investigating Sonja Kohn. The investigators believe Madoff more than $40 million to Sonja Kohn while she was chairwoman of Austria's Bank Medici AG through various companies she controlled, according to the report, which cited affidavits.

In exchange for the kickbacks, prosecutors say Kohn turned three Bank Medici funds into "feeder funds" that supplied Madoff with an estimated $3.5 billion from investors in Europe.

This week, a federal judge sentenced Madoff to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the biggest financial fraud in history.