Death of California Financier Accused Of Massive International Fraud Is Ruled A Suicide Death!

The Wall Street Journal

Financier Pang's Death Ruled a Suicide

written by Mark Maremont
Tuesday January 12, 2010

California financier Danny Pang committed suicide by taking an overdose of a combination of painkillers and other drugs, the coroner's office in Orange County, Calif., concluded.

At the time of his death in September at age 42, Mr. Pang was battling allegations that he had masterminded a massive international fraud. Regulators had charged in federal court in Los Angeles that the financier ran a Ponzi-like scheme and misappropriated investor funds to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Prosecutors also had charged him in U.S. court in Santa Ana, Calif., with structuring currency transactions to get around money-laundering rules. Mr. Pang consistently denied wrongdoing.

The cause of Mr. Pang's death was "combined intoxication" from seven drugs found in his system, according to a written report from the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner. The drugs included oxycodone, hydrocodone and two other painkillers, along with drugs generally used to treat depression and anxiety. The active ingredient in marijuana, known as THC, also was found in his system.

Dr. John C. Hiserodt, a private forensic pathologist in Cypress, Calif., reviewed the toxicology report released by the coroner. He said it showed that Mr. Pang had roughly five times the typical fatal levels of both oxycodone and hydrocodone in his blood, plus the equivalent still in his stomach of about 30 oxycodone pills of 10 milligrams apiece. "You don't get this level of drug accidentally," he said. "It's pretty clearly a suicide."

A spokesman for the family didn't have any immediate response to a request for comment.

Mr. Pang was found unconscious by his mother at his Newport Beach, Calif., home the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2009. He was rushed to a local hospital but died early the next morning. At the time of his death, he was confined to his home most of the time under a bail agreement and was wearing an electronic monitoring device around his ankle.

Shortly after Mr. Pang died, Federal authorities received anonymous tips that the embattled financier had faked his own death. In an affidavit filed in November in federal court, the prosecutor in charge of Mr. Pang's criminal case, Joseph T. McNally, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation verified the body was Mr. Pang's through fingerprints.

The coroner performed an autopsy shortly after Mr. Pang's death, but awaited a toxicology report before making a final determination about cause of death.

Mr. Pang's company, Private Equity Management Group Inc. in Irvine, Calif., or PEMGroup, took in more than $820 million in investments, mostly from some 16,000 retail investors in his native Taiwan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission seized control of PEMGroup in April, shortly after a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal raised questions about the firm and Mr. Pang's credentials.