The self-styled “Chinese Warren Buffet”, Weizhen Tang, has been permanently banned by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).
The commission issued a ruling today, permanently banning Tang from Ontario securities markets based on his fraud conviction in 2012, issued by the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. In 2013, he was sentenced to six years in jail and fined $2.9 million.
The OSC then sought to bring enforcement action against him based on the criminal conviction, which found that he effectively carried out a Ponzi scheme through his investment schemes, made misrepresentations to investors and charged unwarranted fees.
Tang appealed his conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, but those appeals were dismissed in 2015. Earlier this year, the OSC held its own hearing.
Today, it issued its decision, indicating that, “… we find that Tang’s conduct as summarized by Justice O’Marra in the reasons for sentence was egregious and his continued assertions that he is a victim and not the perpetrator of the fraud on the investors in the Oversea Chinese Fund warrant serious apprehension on our part that his future conduct would be detrimental to the integrity of Ontario’s capital markets.”
Ultimately, the panel ruled that Tang should be permanently banned. “We find that the misconduct for which Tang was convicted was so abusive that… we are compelled to conclude that, unless he is permanently banned, his future conduct would be detrimental to the integrity of Ontario’s capital markets.”