Another Madoff-mini me has surfaced. The SEC has charged Weizhen Tang and his Toronto based hedge fund with operating a Ponzi scheme. Tang liked to bill himself as the “Chinese Warren Buffett.”

Tang, however, wants everyone of his investors to know that he feels just awful about all of this. From Reuters:

Attempts to reach Tang at Weizhen Tang Corp were unsuccessful. In a public letter to partners posted on Weizhen Tang’s website, Tang said: “I did not steal everyone’s funds.”

“For my investment partners, February 27 of 2009 was a most shocking, heart-breaking and grieving day,” Tang wrote in the letter. “It was also a day of tremendous pain to myself, one that I had feared so much but eventually it arrived. Because of the sin that I had committed, I have hurt you badly. I’d like to extend my deepest apologies.”

He’s probably hoping a good cry with Oprah and a stint with Dr. Phil are all that’s left to get him out of this pickle. Good luck.

Once again, it’s a classic case of a fraudster preying upon his affinity group. In this case Chinese-Americans. It may be that if you have anything in common with someone who is trying to sell you a financial services product, you should turn around and walk away.