Beware of Imitations! SEC Accuses "Chinese Warren Buffett" of Running Ponzi Scheme
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The Securities and Exchange Commission says in a news release today that it has stopped a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme aimed mostly at Chinese-Americans in the Dallas area.
The SEC's complaint says the man behind the alleged scheme described himself as the "Chinese Warren Buffett."
Toronto-based Weizhen Tang and his hedge fund are accused of raising between $50 million and $75 million from more than 200 investors.
"The SEC's complaint alleges that Tang told investors in February 2009 that in an effort to conceal substantial trading losses and attract new investors to the Oversea Chinese Fund, he posted false profits on investors' account statements and used funds from new investors to return principal and pay out at least $8 million in 'fake' profits to other investors."
Tang tells Bloomberg he wasn't running a Ponzi scheme, although his firm has had "difficulties."
And he says he didn't start calling himself the "Chinese Warren Buffett" until others had come up with the nickname. "I wish I could be" Warren Buffett, he tells the news service.
His company's web site features 43 sections of text under the label "My Road to Buffettian Wealth."
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