Danny Pang is a gift that keeps on giving. We’ve already provided the broad outline of the Taiwanese businessman’s story: lying on his resume; defrauding investors; attempting to bribe a source to stop assisting a Wall Street Journal reporter; compulsive gambling; allegations that he murdered his wife, a former stripper; and, of course, manipulating a BigLaw partner to do Pang’s shady bidding.
After the jump, the latest developments and more BigLaw.
Pang used Charles Schmerler (Yale BA ‘81, BU JD ‘84), a litigator from Fulbright & Jaworski to work out a settlement with his former boss, pursuant to which the boss would stop feeding information to the WSJ reporter.
Now he has turned to David Schindler (Berkeley BA ‘83, UCLA JD ‘87) of Latham & Watkins for his criminal defense. That’s right, he has now been charged by the SEC.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the SEC accused Pang of defrauding investors by misrepresenting his background and the safety of his company’s investment products. The lawsuit also alleged that Pang used newer investors’ money to make interest payments to earlier investors.
U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez froze Pang’s assets and those of his company, Private Equity Management Group Inc., and requested that he return any “ill-gotten gains” and any money that might have been sent overseas. Many of Pang’s clients lived in Taiwan, the SEC alleged. Gutierrez scheduled a May 11 hearing to consider whether to extend the emergency order.
The lawsuit did not say how much money Pang’s firm controls, stating only that it had defrauded investors of “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Of course, it’s all a misunderstanding. Schindler says Pang didn’t defraud investors and they would be seeking to have the injunction withdrawn and let Pang get back to running his business.
We also got a little more information about Pang’s murdered wife.
Newport Beach lawyer Hugh “Randy” McDonald was charged with murdering Pang’s wife, but his trial ended with a hung jury. He was not retried. During the trial, McDonald’s lawyers portrayed Pang as a shady businessman and high-stakes gambler and contended that prosecutors ignored evidence of Pang’s ties to Taiwanese mobsters.
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Doesn't the Department of Justice bring criminal actions against SEC Act violators? Where the SEC only brings civil enforcement actions?
I'm a deal lawyer and have never (as far as I know) violated the securities laws, so the issue hasn't come up, but all we said that he has been charged, which would seem to include being charged with violating the securities laws, not that it was a criminal action.
The SEC filed a "complaint for violation of the securities laws," which you can read here
http://sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2009/comp210...
The relief they're seeking is all civil-esque, to your point. Disgorgement, injunctions, civil penalties, etc.