Weizhen Tang talks to reporters while on a lunch break during a sentencing hearing in Toronto, January 9, 2013. )J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from a self-styled Chinese Warren Buffett who was convicted in a multimillion-dollar fraud.
Weizhen Tang was convicted in 2012, sentenced to six years in jail and ordered to pay a $2.8-million fine within five years of his release.
Tang operated an investment fund called the Overseas Chinese Fund, which defrauded investors from Canada, the United States and China of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme.
His trial heard testimony that he told investors in 2009 that his fund held more than $70-million in assets, when in fact it had just $1,000.
On appeal, Tang argued there was no crime involved, but the Ontario Court of Appeal described the matter as "a straightforward case of fraud by deceit on a massive scale."
As usual, the Supreme Court gave no reasons for refusing to hear the appeal.