An Open Letter to the Crown Law Office:
On why the Case against Weizhen Tang is simply not fair
In the year and a half since the initial charge by the OSC against me, there have been numerous court appearances and many more re-scheduling of the same, wasting the time of many and the money of far more, including my purported “victims”; the majority of these have been begging for my right to trade on their behalf once more--hardly a suggestion of any guilt on my part.
Now, in the last month of 2010, there appears to be an issue to focus on in court. I feel strongly that the real focus should be on releasing my $200,000, as well as the $50,000 in trade profit, along with any other funds and resources for my defence, to allow me to have a legal team and enough time to prepare for trial.
The charges against me do not seem to be serious, as there was no focus on any possible motivation for fraud, or any evidence of the same. Where is my money? Here, the entire world is still shaking from our recent financial tsunami, and all one sees are these attacks on a single Chinese-Canadian businessman, and the punishing of a number of legitimate entrepreneurs. The focus of any trial should be on my trading ability and history, and not merely the few complaints which were made against me, so that all of my investors might be helped and not harmed.
I believe that there is no real case against me, no “Ponzi scheme,” and no fraud whatsoever. This so-called “Weizhen Tang Case” brought by the Office of the Crown and the Ontario Securities Commission is not a criminal case by any stretch of the imagination, as it lacks any evidence of fraud, and offers a wrongful definition of the term “Ponzi.” If their interpretation of such a scheme is “to use new investors’ money to pay off old investors,” then most financial institutions and companies in Canada could be charged. Yet it appears that the Crown and the OSC have chosen to use one middle-aged entrepreneurial immigrant as a scapegoat.
To accuse me, Weizhen Tang, of running a $60-million Ponzi scheme is a terrible mistake and dangerously misleading. Did they find $60 million in my possession--or even one-hundredth of that? Hardly. They found no money on me or in my bank accounts, OSC actually destroyed our investment, leading the OSC to pay investors on my behalf, wasting both the government’s money and the public’s money. The Ontario Securities Commission has spent over a million dollars, perhaps more, to wrongly charge me, throw me unfairly into jail for three full months, cruelly harm my investors, and unnecessarily waste precious public resources. All this, at a time of great economic turmoil in Canada! What is all the sadder is, Ponzi schemes, when they do occur, are serious financial frauds and evil criminal activities. To charge anyone wrongly of this has had a detrimental effect on the public at large.
I am a successful businessman of nearly two decades standing, who had made good money legally and thoughtfully for hundreds of people in the world’s markets. I have never had any intention, nor motivation, to steal from any investors, nor to commit any fraud. No money has ever been discovered stolen, missing, or hidden, and every penny has been accounted for.
What has happened, then, for over 18 months? The OSC and the Metro Toronto Police have destroyed my name, my business, my very livelihood, leaving me with a giant mortgage on my modest home (no Bernard Madoff in a multi-million-dollar Manhattan penthouse wearing ten-thousand-dollar suits and four-hundred-dollar monogrammed slippers, here in Canada!), huge legal expenses, and a devastated life, while the government has spent a fortune keeping four or five lawyers working full time on my case. This is surely not justice served.
I not only lack money and income, but I was actually denied legal aid on three different occasions, and am unable to mount a strong legal defence--this, done to a man who has made major contributions to the Canadian economy. I have no access nor right to use my own personal money from my mortgage, which has been frozen by the OSC, apparently to destroy my defence. I have been treated extremely unfairly, as I hope and expect to prove in court.
What is also painful is the fact that the complainants are all men and women who admired me and were thrilled with my financial skills for years before the OSC charged me, who now hate me. Understandably, they all want to make money, which is why it makes more sense that they complain to the OSC and sue that institution, since it is the latter which has damaged their hopes to regain their lost money, not me. I invested, and lost, far more money than any of those, as well as my Good Name, but I will fight with all my might to work for them, along with all others, including myself.
I look forward to justice in this land of opportunity and usual fairness.
Thank you for considering my thoughts, protests, and prayers.
Weizhen Tang, December 9, 2010 |