Since a run-in with controversy in the world of money management about a decade ago, Austrian financier Wolfgang Flottl has cut a high profile in the worlds of Impressionist art and Manhattan charity balls he attends with his wife, Dwight D. Eisenhower?s granddaughter.

But now the 50-year-old son of a Viennese banker has surfaced as a player ? whether in a major role or a bit part remains unclear ? in the Refco Inc. scandal. He says he?s just a former customer, but his involvement adds to a long list of ties between Refco and a small Austrian bank his father once ran.

The commodities-and-futures brokerage firm spiralled into bankruptcy court this week, and its ousted chief executive, Phillip R. Bennett, faces a criminal securities fraud charge. He?s accused of hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in bad debts from investors in Refco?s August initial public offering of stock by secretly assuming them from the brokerage into a company he controlled. Through his lawyer, Mr. Bennett has denied wrongdoing.

Investigators are trying to figure out the origin of those debts, which totalled $430 million when Refco?s board disclosed them this month, plunging the company into crisis. The debts stemmed from customer trading losses dating as far back as the late 1990s, and a person familiar with the matter says one of those customers was Ross Capital, Mr. Flottl?s Bermuda-based investment fund.

Mr. Flottl confirms conducting trades through Refco, but says all obligations to it were paid in full and on time and that he?s flummoxed over why his name surfaced in connection with Refco?s problems.

?It is ludicrous,? he says. It?s possible the debts were moved on or off Refco?s books without the customers? knowledge or even their awareness that the debts still existed.

Mr. Flottl?s father for two decades ran a small Austrian bank, Bawag P.S.K. Group, that earlier this month extended emergency loans that Mr. Bennett used to pay off the debts after being confronted by Refco?s board about them.

Those loans, uncharacteristically large for a bank of its size, now look pretty risky, given that Mr. Bennett?s collateral ? Refco stock ? has lost 96 percent of its value since October 7, the Friday before the scandal broke. US investigators are trying to figure out why Bawag was so quick to loan Mr. Bennett such a large sum, and Austrian regulators are looking into it, too. Bawag is listed as Refco?s biggest unsecured creditor, with claims of about $451.2 million.

Another tie between Bawag and Refco is Thomas Hackl, who was head of investment banking at the Austrian bank before leaving in 2000 to become the New York-based brokerage?s head of global asset management, Refco said in a statement at the time. Mr. Hackl, who is no longer with the brokerage, couldn?t be reached for comment.

Mr. Flottl says Ross Capital used Refco as a broker to trade bonds, foreign exchange and futures from roughly the early 1990s to the late 1990s.

He also says he traded on behalf of Bawag until 1994, the year his father stepped down from his post there, after questions were raised about the propriety of that trading. Mr. Flottl says his investments made money for the bank. Regulators investigated the matter and issued a confidential report, but the contents remain unknown, a person familiar with the matter says. The episode left Bawag?s lenders nervous. The Financial Times reported in 1994 that six banks yanked credit lines from Bawag, citing the close ties between the father and son and other concerns.

In 1999, Bawag acquired a ten percent stake in Refco, which it sold in 2004, and securities filings outline other dealings between Bawag and Refco.

Bawag?s supervisory board, after meeting on Thursday evening, issued a statement yesterday saying that jobs at the bank are safe and that it has adequate reserves even if the loans aren?t repaid. Bawag said that it had been lending money to Refco since 1999, though it didn?t say how much.

The Flottl family is from Vienna, where his father was known for ruling Bawag with a strong hand. ?He was ?Mr. Bawag,? ? Alarich Fenyves, a bank consultant in Vienna, says of the now-retired father. Though Walter Flottl was known as a conservative banker, people still talk about the bank?s decision to add a penthouse to one of its buildings ? an odd move, given the union-owned bank?s egalitarian roots.

As a young man, Wolfgang Flottl moved to Boston to earn a degree from Harvard Business School in June 1981 and then established Ross Capital in Bermuda.

Arvind Krishnamurthy, who traded US and Canadian bonds at Ross in 1993 and 1994, said Ross Capital gave traders much autonomy to make their own decisions.

?We were organised into small groups of traders, each pursuing their own strategies with capital that had been allocated to us,? Mr. Krishnamurthy said in an email. He said he had little interaction with Mr. Flottl beyond occasional group meetings. A spokesman for Mr. Flottl said those traders given autonomy followed strict guidelines.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Flottl began to take a keen interest in art. He reportedly snapped up a Degas in 1991. At a Christie?s auction that fall, he was described as the buyer who purchased three pricey works. A spokesman for Mr. Flottl said Mr. Flottl doesn?t comment on private matters such as art.

In more recent years, Mr. Flottl has been a seller, accepting an estimated $50 million from Los Angeles?s J. Paul Getty Museum for Cezanne?s ?Young Italian Woman Leaning on Her Elbow.? In June 2004, he sold one of his Degas pieces, originally acquired for $9.7 million, for an estimated $7.6 million.

He is a regular at New York society functions with his wife, Anne Eisenhower. In a telephone interview this week, he explained that he couldn?t talk long because ?she is waiting for dinner.?