A Richmond based company that bills itself as a pharmaceutical firm that has developed anti-cancer drugs is facing allegations of fraud and illegal distribution of securities from the B.C. Securities Commission.
Winter Huang (aka Dong Huang) and his sister, Vicky Dancho (aka Ju Huang) of Pegasus Pharmaceuticals Group Inc. are being called before a BCSC panel later this month to answer charges of illegally selling bonds to investors in Taiwan.
According to the BCSC, Pegasus raised US$65 million worth of bonds between 2008 and 2012, US$56 million of which would constitute a breach of securities laws. According to the BCSC, the Pegasus bonds were to raise money for a variety of business ventures. The company did not file a prospectus, and is not registered to sell securities in B.C., so the selling of the bonds could constitute a violation of the Securities Act.
The BCSC also alleges that Huang sold promissory notes guaranteed by Careseng Cancer Institute, a company also controlled by Huang and Dancho, on behalf of Pegasus Pharmaceuticals.
The money appears to have been raised for a new holistic cancer treatment centre that may not have ever existed.
“Staff contends that Huang and Dancho knew, or ought to have known, that these guarantees were false as Careseng Cancer had no operations, no employees, no revenue, and less than USD $50,000 in assets,” the BCSC said in a news release.
The allegations have not been proven in court. Huang and Dancho will face a BCSC hearing on February 23. A call to Pegasus was not returned.
Panagin Pharmaceuticals, an affiliate of Pegasus, markets an anticancer drug called HemoMex, which it claims is approved for use in the Republic of Georgia and the Republic of Uzbekistan. Pegasus Pharmaceuticals has been on the BCSC’s radar screen since 2012, when it issued a warning to investors about the company.
It’s unclear why it has taken four years for the companies to be called before the commission to answer fraud allegations.
