Until last week, what little was heard about Irvine-based Private Equity Management Group sounded impressive,Chinese immigrant Danny Pang’s “billion-dollar” investment fund was defying the recession; investments included life insurance, a high-tech hotel chain and recently deceased Charles “Mask” Lewis’ TapouT combat-clothing line. The OCBJ never quite got around to writing about it; the couple of times we inquired, the company begged off. As late as last Monday, a local businessman involved with PEMGroup was lauding Pang and urging the Insider to visit the office. Now he’s not commenting. And no more obscurity for Pang, who since last Wednesday’s front-page expose in the Wall Street Journal is being compared to Bernie Madoff. Allegations abound, including that Pang ran a Ponzi scheme. Investigations are under way here and in Taiwan, where banks sold asset-backed securities originated by PEMGroup. The gunslingers are gathering, including fraudster-turned-sleuth Barry Minkow as a Pang accuser, L.A. crisis flack Michael Sitrick as a defender. OC has been fertile ground for Sitrick, who besides Pang, is representing Broadcom cofounder Henry Nicholas …
Former OC Supe Gaddi Vasquez has another high-end gig,executive director of the Annenberg Foundation Trust of Sunnylands. The organization, a part of the Annenberg Foundation empire, promotes democracy and other causes and is building an education/conference center in Rancho Mirage next to the Annenberg estate. Under George W. Bush, Vasquez ran the Peace Corps and then served as U.S. Representative to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome …
Stan Oftelie is tube-free. Next: chemo …
EE RR introduces Pimco CEO Mohammed El-Erian, the OCBJ’s Businessperson of the Year, at the OC Forum luncheon Wednesday at the Irvine Hilton. Go to www.ocforum.org …
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle emcees an OC Biz Council-sponsored tribute and roast of former state Sen. Dick Ackerman Thursday at the Westin South Coast Plaza. Info at www.ocbc.org …
Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, who played the game show host in “Slumdog Millionaire,” visits Chapman U Friday to screen his film, “Ghandi, My Father” …
Richard J. O’Neill went out his way,a packed funeral service at the Mission San Juan Capistrano with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among the thousand mourners; nephew and Rancho Mission Viejo business partner Tony Moiso eulogizing; ex-California guvs Jerry Brown and Gray Davis as two of the pallbearers; and a festive Irish/Western/Mexican wake at his El Adobe restaurant. Davis,Moiso’s Stanford frat brother and O’Neil’s political disciple,was relaxed and gracious. He handed out his business card (“Governor Gray Davis (Ret.), Attorney at Law, Loeb & Loeb LLP”), posed for pictures and declined opportunities to fire back at his 2003 recall tormentor and then-tax basher Arnold Schwarzenegger, now grappling with his own multibillion-dollar deficit. Davis only commented that his predecessor Pete Wilson once told him, “The governor has to be the adult in the room,” which the Insider took to mean that the realities of office can douse fiery campaign rhetoric.
