Danny Pang

Pang faced civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that he defrauded millions of dollars from investors through his Irvine-based Private Equity Management Group, or PEMGroup. Pang, a Taiwan native who immigrated to the U.S. as a teen, first made headlines in May 1997 when his 33-year-old wife, Janie, was shot to death in the couple's Villa Park home. As the murder case sank out of public view, Pang's notoriety in the financial world began its steep ascent. In 2003, he launched PEMGroup, an international money management company that ultimately attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from Taiwanese banks and individual investors. Pang left the firm in April after a news article cited allegations that he had misappropriated investor money. The SEC obtained a court order freezing the company's assets. A court-appointed receiver accused Pang of using his investors' money "like his own personal piggy bank" to finance "a lifestyle that only the richest individuals enjoy."