Chinese Warren Buffett' arrested in $30M Ponzi case - he came back?
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Chinese Warren Buffett' arrested in $30M Ponzi case
Toronto financial adviser Weizhen Tang maintains innocence
Last Updated: Thursday, January 14, 2010 | 1:58 PM ET
CBC News
Weizhen Tang has admitted he fabricated account statements and lost all the money his clients had invested in his company. (Toronto Police Service)
Toronto police have charged a financial adviser accused of defrauding more than 100 investors of about $30 million.
Weizhen Tang, who described himself on his website as the "Chinese Warren Buffett," is accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme between January 2006 and March 2009.
Two officers from the police's fraud squad took Tang into custody shortly after his Air Canada flight from Shaghai arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Wednesday evening.
Tang, 51, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning, but his case was put over until the afternoon.
Tang was originally to appear before Toronto police on Dec. 29 to face charges. But he was in China at the time and did not keep that appointment, prompting police to issue a warrant for his arrest.
His online trading firm in Canada, Oversea Chinese Fund Limited Partnership, required investors to contribute at least $150,000 each.
The investors live across Canada, the United States and in China, police said. They have complained they have not been able to access the money they invested in Tang's company.
Tang has been charged with fraud over $5,000.
The Ontario Securities Commission has also forbidden Tang to trade and charged him in June with 12 fraud-related counts. A provincial court trial on those charges is set to begin April 19.
Tang acknowledged he failed to disclose losses, fabricated investor account statements and lost all investor money, the commission says. But he maintains he has committed no crimes, attributing the lost funds to poor financial decisions.
Tang is also wanted in the United States on a number of fraud-related charges.
His lawyer, Loftus Cuddy, said Wednesday he doesn't know if he will represent Tang in court because his client is broke.
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