Fleecing Central

Danny Pang

Danny Pang of The Private Equity Management Group is being charged with defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars since 2003. In addition to his fraud the SEC complaint says that he lied about his education and prior career saying he was a former senior vice president and technology merger adviser at Morgan Stanley and had an advanced business degree from the University of California at Irvine. It is unknown as of now whether or not Mr. Pang is still in the United States. More can be read at nytimes.com.

Donald Anthony Walker Young

An investment adviser from the Philadelphia area is accused of misappropriating more than $23M of client funds. The proceeds were allegedly used to pay personal expenses related to horse ownership and racing, construction, boats, limousines, chartered aircraft and other luxuries. Using his position of control over nearly every aspect of his company Alcorn Capital Management, he was able to mislead investors about deposits and withdrawals. More can be read about the case at SEC.gov.

Stanford Requests $10M to be Unfrozen to pay Lawyers

The request for $10M in funds to pay his defense team as he defends himself against allegations of a potentially massive fraud. The full NYtims.com article can be read here.

J. Ezra Merkin

Here are some of the excerpts from the article:

"Merkin duped individual investors, non-profits, and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history's largest Ponzi scheme," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

The complaint also accused Merkin of mingling his personal funds with the accounts of his management company, Gabriel Capital Group, and using some of the company's funds for personal purchases, including $91 million worth of artwork for his apartment.

Cuomo's suit, filed in state court in Manhattan, demands that Merkin repay all of the fees he collected from his clients over the years, plus damages.'

You can read the full article at yahoo.com.

Allen Stanford

Stanford is denying any crime or Ponzi scheme as alleged by the SEC. “The SEC has cremated the Stanford companies and Stanford, partly to get over the embarrassment at their lack of oversight in the Madoff case,’’ DeGuerin [Stanford's Lawyer] said. “But this isn’t anything like Madoff.’’ The full bloomberg.com article can be read here.

Marvin R. Cooper

Marvin R. Cooper allegedly targeted members of the deaf community in a Ponzi scheme that raised $4.4M dollars. The SEC said that Cooper's company, Billions Coupons, held seminars at Community Centers where deaf people were targeted. The SEC claims that Cooper took $1.4M of investor funds for personal expenses, including the purchase of a new home. The full Yahoo.com article can be read here.

Joseph Nacchio

The ex-CEO of Qwest Communications International Inc., Joseph Nacchio was fired from his post after the discovery of $2.5B in improperly booked revenue. After his court of appeals hearing, Nacchio's 19 counts of insider trading were confirmed. This means that he will likely begin his jail time. His attorney said that they will try again with the Supreme Court. The full WSJ.com article can be read here.

Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh

Greenwood and Walsh are charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud in an estimated $553M fraud. The misappropriated funds were used to fund a lavish lifestyle, raising show horses and collecting rare items. Between January 1995 and September 2008 the hedge-fund reported positive earnings every month. More can be read on the fraud at wsj.com.
Left to right: Greenwood and Walsh
 

Allen Stanford

Allen Stanford is being charged with a "massive ongoing fraud" in relation to $8B of CDs that were sold to investors with promised returns exceeding 8%. There were 30,000 CDs sold in 131 countries. The full Reuters article can be read here.

Victor Teicher

The NTIMES.com article Imprisoned Felon Was Adviser to Madoff Investor shows that Victor Teicher, a convicted felon, was a money manager for a firm that invested $2B of its clients' assets with Madoff.