"Chinese Warren Buffett" Sued by SEC for Ponzi Scheme

Hedge Fund Manager, Weizhen Tang, 50, of WinWin Capital Management, has been sued by the SEC for running what authorities are calling a Ponzi Scheme. According to authorities, Tang managed about $75 million in assets (barely 1/10 of 1% of Maddoff's fund) and didn't reveal losses of over $15 million in 2007 to investors.

A federal court judge in Dallas agreed to freeze assets and appoint a receiver to recover clients’ money, the SEC said. The agency wants him to forfeit profits and pay unspecified fines.

More interestingly, Tang supposedly referred to himself as the "Chinese Warren Buffett", a claim he denies using until others started calling him by that name.

For years, Weizhen Tang was considered an investment guru in much of the Chinese community in North America. He could supposedly generate a 1-per-cent weekly return.

But Mr. Tang's reputation was dealt a stunning setback during the week of Jan. 26, 2009. That was when he held a public demonstration of his investment strategy in his Toronto office and couldn't match the reported results of his funds.

"Unfortunately the public demo failed," Mr. Tang wrote in an e-mail to investors a few days after the event. "I apologize. I don't want to find any excuses. I need more hard work."

By 2009, Oversea Chinese and WinWin had attracted more than 200 investors who invested roughly $75-million (U.S.) in total, according to court filings. The minimum investment was $150,000 (Canadian) in Oversea Chinese and $250,000 (U.S.) in WinWin. Mr. Tang did not charge a fee on the first 6 per cent of profit, but he took a 25-per-cent cut of any additional profit, according to court filings.