OC gets it's own ponzi headlines

acpme_IHB

New member
This was on the front page of the WSJ today... here's a link to the OC Register article re:



Danny Pang, chairman of a $4 billion private equity fund in Irvine, is accused of running a Ponzi scheme and fabricating his degree from UC Irvine in a Wall Street Journal investigation published today.



<a href="http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2009/04/15/wsj-probes-oc-financiers-resume-funds/10631/">http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2009/04/15/wsj-probes-oc-financiers-resume-funds/10631/</a>
 
Here is the <a href="http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20090415/SB123974073916318035/">linky to the full article</a>. I remember when his wife got whacked, and thought there was something fishy going on. I mean, it was the first homicide in VP... that we know of. I wonder who paid for the hit now? Triads? Bookie? The dude he stole from? Or a combo of each?
 
<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY6UOmbMoie4&refer=home">Indicted!</a>

<em>

Assets of Danny Pang and his two companies were frozen by an emergency federal court order after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused the California financier of defrauding investors.



The SEC accused Pang and his Irvine, California-based firms, Private Equity Management Group Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC, of paying existing investors with funds raised from new ones while claiming the returns came from proceeds made on investments in life insurance policies of senior citizens and timeshare real estate.



PEMGroup also gave investors a forged $108 million insurance policy, the SEC said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. In addition, Pang lied about having worked at Morgan Stanley and about having received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California in Irvine, the SEC said.



?We allege that Pang lured investors with false claims and even bogus documents to dupe them into believing their principal and interest were guaranteed and insured,? Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC?s enforcement division, said in the statement. ?Swift and decisive enforcement action is critical to rooting out unscrupulous promoters.?</em>



<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124087132292261025.html">From the WSJ</a>:

<em>

The company hired law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher to perform an independent investigation. A company spokesman had no immediate comment on the SEC allegations. Mr. Pang, 42 years old, traveled to China two weeks ago for a religious pilgrimage, according to his spokesman.



David Schindler, an attorney for Mr. Pang, said his client expects to be fully vindicated. He said Mr. Pang voluntarily returned to the U.S. more than a week ago to cooperate with PEMGroup's internal probe and is committed to saving the company</em>



acmpe, do you remember when his wife got whacked? It was pretty creepy, and it smelled like a hit to me.
 
yeah although i remember a lot of people brushed off the suspicions of the husband because she was a former stripper. they figured it must have been some trouble from her former life catching up with her.



in pang's defense, apparently he's pretty open about his shady scumbagginess. you could blame everybody this guy's come across for letting him continue his shenanigans.



<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/04/and_the_title_for_most_insane.html">http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/04/and_the_title_for_most_insane.html</a>



1988 to 1989: He's elected chairman of the Asian Pacific Student & Staff Association at the University of Irvine, California. Which, by the way, only has records of him being a student there for a single summer term, in 1986, and doesn't show that anyone with his name or Social Security Number ever received the degrees he lists. Asked how someone unenrolled could be a student leader, a university spokeswoman told the Journal, "He could just walk on campus, be Mr. Personality and get elected chairman. How would they know if he was a student?"



1993: Pang's wife, Janie Louise, a former stripper, calls police to their house, saying her husband threatened to kill her. While they are there she mentions that in the past, he broke her nose, stole money from her parents, and once forced her to withdraw $70,000 from the bank, which he spent on "gambling, women, alcohol, etc."



Early nineties to 1997: Pang becomes a partner at Sky Capital Partners, a venture-capital firm with offices in California and Taiwan. President and CEO Michael Hsu later says that Pang "stole 3 million dollars from an investment escrow account by faking signature of mine and CEO of our investment target." When confronted, according to Hsu, Pang said he "just needed the money."



May 1997: Pang's wife hires a private detective, who observes her husband holding hands with another woman. The next day, per the Journal,



Ms. Pang was scheduled to meet with the investigator at noon. Shortly before that, the doorbell rang at the Pangs' home. According to court records, the family's maid heard Ms. Pang, her 5-year-old at her side, answer the door and begin talking to the visitor, who asked if she was "Miss Pang."



She then began screaming. The maid saw her run through the house, chased by an elegantly dressed man carrying a briefcase and holding a gun. As Ms. Pang cowered in a closet, he shot her dead.



2001: Pang is sued by his stepson (from his wife's first marriage) over $750,000 in proceeds from his wife's life insurance.



Early aughts: Pang forms Private Equity Management Group, which included, among other things, "a fund that would buy life-insurance policies from elderly people and collect when they died." Becomes known around the office as a "consummate liar" and gambler.



2006: Takes money from a fund that is meant to be invested in time-share resorts in the U.S. and uses it to buy a Gulfstream IV jet for the company.



July 12, 2007: Takes a group of women from the office to Las Vegas on said jet. "On the return flight the next day, Mr. Pang, having won at a casino, 'had a briefcase stuffed with cash and he started throwing money to the girls, stacks of $10,000.'" Takes pictures of said event (below).



2007: When life insurance business fails to pay off (because, according to a coworker, "everybody lived a long time," Pang decides to remedy matters with a Ponzi scheme, which apparently he was quite open about. According to the employee, "Pang came into his office and said: 'Nasar, I want you to know we are in a Ponzi scheme.' He adds that Mr. Pang stated he would fix the problem by doing well on another investment."



2009: Has lawyer draft an agreement promising to pay said employee $500,000 for telling The Wall Street Journal that his statements were false and that he had made them partly because stress "affected my judgment and mental well-being." Shuts down company website.
 
And guess <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pang-report-million-2563174-beach-newport">who</a> just died.
 
[quote author="tmare" date=1252835464]And guess <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pang-report-million-2563174-beach-newport">who</a> just died.</blockquote>
Karma can be a bizatch...that's why I try to keep things positive. :cheese:
 
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