More than a decade ago Austrian businessman Wolfgang Flottl was busy presiding over a Bermuda-based trading empire. Today authorities in his home country are contemplating issuing an arrest warrant for the financier, as they scrutinise if high-risk trading bets he made to amass a personal fortune may have involved fraud.

Mr. Flottl?s Manhattan-based lawyer, Martin Goldenberg, yesterday said an arrest warrant was being ?contemplated? by Austrian authorities but had not yet been issued. And he said Mr. Flottl hasn?t broken any laws.

?He feels strongly that no crimes have been committed,? Mr. Goldberg said in a telephone interview.

Also on the radar of public prosecutors in Vienna is Phillip Bennett, the former chief executive of Refco Inc., which for years handled trades for Mr. Flottl?s companies, as well as counting the Austrian bank his father then presided over, Bawag, as a large investor and client. (see related story)

Mr. Goldenberg said Mr. Flottl, who keeps his Manhattan telephone number unpublished, was not yesterday available for comment. And he wouldn?t speak to Mr. Flottl?s whereabouts, or whether he continues to have Bermuda ties, either personally or through his companies.

Mr. Flottl is understood to spend much of his time in Manhattan with his wife, Anne, grand-daughter of General Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1991, Mr. Flottl set up his main Bermuda company, Ross Capital Markets Ltd. And in quick succession he established several more companies, including International Asset Management.

Another subsidiary, EBT Securities Ltd. counted Cheryl-Ann Lister, now chairman of the Island?s financial services regulator the Bermuda Monetary Authority, as managing director. EBT has since been dissolved.

At their height, Ross Capital Management, and other affiliated firms making up Mr. Floettl?s trading empire were the picture of hi-tech trading sophistication.

Traders worked around the clock to make the calculated, high-risk trades in various foreign currencies that created a personal fortune large enough to buy Mr. Flottl?s way into some of the most world?s most prestigious communities.

His fortunes in Bermuda had expanded to the point that he contracted with then Premier Sir John Swan, a property developer, to build a new Front Street headquarters for Ross Capital Markets and other Bermuda firms Mr. Flottl controlled.

On a personal front, Mr. Flottl submitted elaborate plans to the Department of Planning to redevelop the $23 Planning to redevelop the $23 million Castle Point property he owned in Tucker?s Town. He also owned Sounion West, another Tucker?s Town home.

He also counted a home in the Hamptons, a summer haven for New York?s elite, put on the market for $23 million three years ago.

In 1995, Mr. Flottl scuttled his plans to build Front Street headquarters. The decision cost him an undisclosed sum, paid to break his pact with Sir John to build the eight-storey office tower to be named Seon Place. At the time, Mr. Flottl said he was consolidating his Bermuda operations in New York, where he was spending more time.

Bermuda Registrar of Companies records yesterday showed most of the companies that once made up Mr. Flottl?s Bermuda business empire were amalgamated or closed.

Ross Capital and International Asset Management continue to be listed in the telephone book as having an office at 14 Par-la-Ville Road. A visit to the five-storey office building found no sign of either company. Calls to the listed number, which is the same for each company, are answered by a recorded message. call to that number was returned by Mr. Flottl?s lawyer, Mr. Goldenberg.