The Man Who Faked His Way To Billions

Extremely interesting portrayal from the WSJ of former private-equity superstar Danny Pang.

With its vintage neon sign advertising "Heated Pool," the Rummel Motel in the early 1980s was the sort of place budget travelers would bunk down while they tried their luck at the slots in the nearby Las Vegas Strip.  It also was home to a young Taiwanese immigrant, Danny Pang, who as a teenager lived in the motel owned by his relatives.  Unlike the other immigrant teens he hung around with, Mr. Pang seemed to have a lot of money and frequently gambled at the casinos.

"He'd take you to the steakhouse, a show, pay everything," says Jeffrey Liu, whose family co-owned a neighboring motel. "Everybody wanted to be with him."

One day, Mr. Liu and another friend spotted Mr. Pang taking money from the cash register at a motel owned by the friend's family, Mr. Liu says. They confronted Mr. Pang and he denied stealing. The boys let it slide, but made Mr. Pang pay for their dinner, says Mr. Liu.

For Mr. Pang, it would become a pattern for the rest of his life—a flashy lifestyle that drew people to him, along with repeated accusations of deception that progressed from petty theft to a final, trans-Pacific heist. At the time of his death in September at age 42, Mr. Pang was battling charges by federal regulators that he ran a massive Ponzi-like scheme from his Irvine, Calif., investment firm. A court-appointed receiver accused him of using the firm as a "personal piggy bank" to help finance lavish habits that included private jets, luxury cars and gambling.

The still-unraveling scandal cost his investors, most from his native Taiwan, as much as $600 million, according to estimates from the receiver. The coroner's report is expected by early January and with it, a ruling on whether the financier committed suicide.

Read the rest at the WSJ >>