Latest update on Tang's case
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SEC finds "Chinese Warren Buffett" left little money
2009-05-11 14:56 ET - Street Wire
Also Street Wire (U-*SEC) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
by Mike Caswell
The receiver in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Toronto resident Weizhen Tang has reported that he will recover far less money than Mr. Tang raised from investors. The SEC claims that Dallas investors placed $17.3-million in Mr. Tang's purported hedge fund, Oversea China Fund LP, but the receiver says he has only located $1.7-million in assets. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
The judge appointed the receiver, Tom Tong, to locate what assets remained from the fund on April 3, 2009. Mr. Tong has now filed his preliminary report, detailing what money he has found. He says he has located bank and brokerage accounts containing $817,964, and he has identified $430,000 of investor money held by two individuals connected to Mr. Tang, Toronto resident Peter Lin and Texas resident Jay Yu. In addition, he says Canadian authorities have frozen $500,000 that was part of the alleged scheme.
Mr. Tong says the fund had no office assets, because it operated from a virtual office that was essentially a mail drop and telephone answering service. The only equipment he has been able to recover is a used Sony Vaio laptop computer, which he may have analyzed by experts, his report states.
SEC's complaint
The receiver's report comes four weeks after the SEC filed a complaint against Mr. Tang, 50, in the Northern District of Texas. The complaint, dated April 3, 2009, alleged that Mr. Tang proclaimed himself the "Chinese Warren Buffett" and told investors he could generate an annual average return of over 40 per cent with his hedge fund. The fund purported to place 99 per cent of its money in conservative investments, and the remainder in speculative short-term investments. Investors in Dallas, Tex., placed $17.3-million in the fund between May, 2007, and March, 2009, the complaint stated.
The SEC said the scheme fell apart in early January, 2009, when Mr. Tang arranged a public display of his trading ability. Between Jan. 26 and Jan. 30, he conducted a public, real-time demonstration at his office in Toronto. He invited investors and the media, and made the demonstration available on-line as well. The SEC claimed that many investors became concerned about their investments after watching the demonstration, because Mr. Tang was unable to duplicate the returns he claimed he could achieve. The SEC said many investors then attempted to withdraw large amounts of money from his fund. According to the complaint, Mr. Tang told them that the fund did not have sufficient assets to pay the withdrawal requests.
On Feb. 7, 2009, Mr. Tang sent an e-mail to investors, acknowledging that the demonstration had failed, but also claiming that he did not lose any investor money, the SEC said. He then met with approximately 200 investors in Toronto on Feb. 27, including several that had travelled from Dallas, the complaint stated. The SEC claimed that many of them confronted him about his failure to honour withdrawal requests. "In response, Tang admitted that (i) the Hedge Fund had no more money, (ii) deposits into the Hedge Fund by new investors had been used to pay withdrawals and purported profits to earlier investors, and (iii) the information posted on the Hedge Fund website, showing the daily value of each investor's account, was false," the complaint read.
He later admitted to investors in a March 6, 2009, phone call that the hedge fund had sustained trading losses of $15-million in 2006 and 2007, the SEC said. In the same call, he allegedly told investors that he had posted fake profits on the fund's website in order to conceal losses and attract more investors. He also admitted that he had used money from Dallas-area investors to repay earlier investors, mostly from Toronto, the complaint alleged.
The SEC sought appropriate civil penalties and disgorgement of benefits. In addition to Mr. Tang, the suit named as defendants Oversea China Fund as well as several entities Mr. Tang allegedly controlled: Weizhen Tang & Associates Inc.; Weizhen Tang Corp.; WinWin Capital Management LLC; WinWin Capital LP; and JOR & Associates LLC.
Tang's answer
Mr. Tang has not filed an answer to the lawsuit in court, but in statements on his website dated April 13 and April 22, he said he was working to prove his innocence. He also claimed that he would not only clear his name, but would "seize upon the great opportunity that this crisis has created to me, and my vision, to become the world's great investor and investment training company." |
楼主: 从来没有救世主
狗仔卡
发表于 2009-5-14 10:04:02
显身卡
发表于 2009-5-14 11:46:13
