The SEC charged Pang with structuring charges for his scheme to make many transactions just below federal reporting requirements to gain access to huge sums of money without telling the government.  Apparently kept the cash at his house until he bought gold bars with it (really!).  The SEC is also alleging that he ran a huge ponzi scheme.

B of A shareholders voiced their view today by removing Ken Lewis as chairman of the board of directors. He remains as CEO. Time will tell if he stays as CEO given the resounding vote of ‘no confidence’ the shareholders gave him as chairman.
This is an interesting turn of events for a high-flyer who really seemed to have a chance to make B of A the next Citigroup (but is that a good thing or a bad thing?).
American business cycle includes periods of time when companies gather other businesses under their umbrella to gain ’synergies’ and create a whole more valuable than the sum of its parts and then when the synergies don’t show up on cue guess what? They break up the company because the parts are worth more than the whole.

In yet another astonishing display of hubris, Citi has asked the government of special dispensation to pay its already overpaid energy-trading subsidiary executives huge bonuses in one form or another. What? This is ridiculous. Sure, the latest numbers from Citi could look worse, but really, guys, “retention bonuses?” Now is not the time and Wall Street is not the place.

Danny Pang the fugitive financier was arrested today.  When will they learn?  After apparently returning to the U.S. from Taiwan last week he was nabbed in Santa Ana.  US regulators accuse him of significant fraud; millions of dollars, perhaps billions of dollars the feds say was stolen from investors.  Today the FBI arrested him at his lawyer’s office based on charges that he made many transactions less than $10,000 – totaling $360,000 – to avoid federal regulations to report such his transaction to federal regulators.

And these charges aren’t even related to the charges that may  be leveled at his company Private Equity Management (PEM).

Developing…

BofA and City have not officially responded but reports are that they may each need more than the $45 billion they already took from the government. While these reports are preliminary apparently the government has told the banks they may have to raise more money. If the final results reveal the banks need more money they can either raise more money from investors, the government could convert their loans into common stock, or the government could release more bailout money.

The stress tests are designed to see if the banks can handle the expected loan losses as the recession continues.

Some estimates are that the United States could be missing out on tax revenues of up to $50 billion.  So is it any surprise that tax enforcers are vowing to increase their efforts to crack down on business and citizens who try to evade taxes using offshore bank. The IRS plans to roll out new rules that would make it easier for them to go after bank accounts held by offshore banks and the US will be pushing for more global cooperation to knock down banking secrecy laws.  It could be that the US gets some support on this as England has already asked governments around the world to eliminate tax havens.  Of course some countries object to such a call because operating tax havens helps their economies.

One way the IRS is trying to gain access to these lost revenues is to cut deals with people and businesses that voluntarily give up their tax havens and pay the taxes due.

California financier Danny Pang has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with allegations that he defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Although Pang apparently is in China (on a religious pilgrimage) the SEC has a temporary order freezing his assets along with the assets of his companies  Private Equity Management Group, Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC.

Apparently Pang raised much of the money in Taiwan in part by lying about his past acheivements at Morgan Stanley and his earning an advanced degree at UC, Irvine.

A receiver has been appointed – hopefully he will be able to protect what assets he can easily find and recover other assets through clawback lawsuits or agreements with various people and companies.

Welcome to the Savage Law Firm Blog.  This blog will be primarily focused on issues relevant to the national discussion of stock fraud.  Additionally, we will weigh in on various topics related to business in general – from business disputes and scandals to ways that business in our great country helps us all.

We appreciate any feedback you might want to give and we hope everyone can find something useful in this blog.