Benjamin Wey
Benjamin Wey (Benjamin Tianbing Wei, ) is a Chinese-born American Wall Street financier and CEO of New York Global Group (NYGG). He began his financial career as an investment advisor and broker in Oklahoma in the late 1990s. Wey and NYGG were among the most active "facilitators and promoters" of reverse takeovers, which created Special-Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) and allowed small Chinese companies to raise capital on U.S. markets, until reverse takeovers became the subject of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation in 2011. Wey was indicted in September 2015 on federal charges of securities fraud , stock manipulation, money laundering, and wire fraud. He was accused of profiting from undisclosed, controlling ownership interests in several companies in the United States. In June 2017, the presiding judge threw out all evidence seized during a search on the grounds it violated the Fourth Amendment. As a result of the ruling, all charges were voluntary dismissed by prosecutors in August 2017. Since 2016 he has been facing a defamation suit stemming from statements in a digital magazine, "The Blot," which he has used to attack journalists. The New York Court has ruled that TheBlot’s articles are protected under  the First Amendment. Early life and education. Wey was born in Tianjin, China. His father was a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his mother an electrical engineer. He went to the United States on a full scholarship (according to a 2010 interview) to study finance at Oklahoma Baptist University, graduating in 1992. While still at college, he had his own trade business which he continued after his graduation while at the same time studying at the University of Central Oklahoma for a master's degree in Business Administration which he received in 1999. According to his entry  in Columbia Business School's directory, he subsequently obtained a Master of Science in Leadership Development (MSLD) from Columbia. Career. Wey began his financial career in Oklahoma where he worked as an investment advisor and stock broker. In 2000, he became the CEO of the Oklahoma-based Benchmark Global Capital Group. In 2002 Wey was fined $5,000 and suspended by the U.S. National Association of Securities Dealers, now FINRA, for "maintaining accounts" at his brokerage firm without informing the firm in writing. The Oklahoma Department of Securities censured Way and he agreed not to request registration as a broker  in the state. They claimed that he had advised a retired 68-year-old woman to invest her entire life savings in the Nasdaq listed stock of Pharmaprint, a "risky penny stock," without disclosing that he was a paid consultant to the company. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Wey agreed to cease carrying out all brokerage and investment advisory business in the state. A “Key Bridge’ for China-bases Companies Accessing U.S. Capital Markets. In 2000, Wey expanded his base of operations to New York City where he is the CEO of New York Global Group, a U.S. and  Beijing-based financial firm that had managed 200 China-related transactions as of 2011, and was described by the "Financial Times" as a "key 'bridge' between fast-growing Chinese companies and US capital markets." The firm claims access to approximately $1 billion in capital. The firm is noted for advising and underwriting reverse mergers, in which companies are taken public in the United States by acquiring the corporate shells of U.S, companies that are no longer in operation and whose shares had previously been listed in an American equities market. The firm reported in 2009 that 15% of Chinese  companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange were its clients. By 2012, regulators had stepped up action against certain Chinese reverse-takeover stocks, but according to the "Financial Times" had been hamstrung by lack of cooperation from Chinese regulators. Among such stocks were Bodisen Biotech, which was taken public by NYGG via a SPAC and was delisted from the American Stock Exchange three years later in 2007. The exchange cited "internal control weaknesses related to its accounting and financial reporting obligations" and "incomplete, inaccurate and/or misleading information related to its relationship with, and payments to, a consultancy firm and its  affiliates" Victim of Identify Theft. In 2011, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority found that the NYGG's company name was being fraudulently used in a case of corporate identity theft and described the identity theft as an advance fee fraud scheme. In May 2012, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put out a similar alert warning the general public of concerning the fraudulent company maliciously using NYGG's name. Landmark SEC Reversal of Wrongful Delisting of A NASDAQ Company. In December 2010, the NASDAQ stock exchange delisted CleanTech Innovations Inc., a wind-tower manufacturer, citing its association with  NYGG, whom the exchange's senior vice president Michael Emen called "notorious" because of its underwriting of financing for CleanTech. The NASDAQ delisting prompted a lawsuit in 2011 from CleanTech against the NASDAQ and Michael Emen, which was represented by former U.S. senator Arlen Specter with Wey as a "consultant". The suit (later dismissed because the SEC had not yet rendered its own decision in the case) had accused NASDAQ of a "racially profiling set of procedures" that targeted the Chinese. Specifically, Cleantech's amended complaint alleged that "overt and systematic racially-motivated discriminatory acts" based on racially motivated grounds  were the basis of Cleantech's delisting. In July 2013 in what "Forbes" called "a landmark decision", the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed with CleanTech and reversed NASDAQ's delisting of the company, the first time in NASDAQ’s 44-year history. The SEC specifically concluded that "[T]he record does not show that the specific grounds on which Nasdaq based its delisting decision exist in fact." Victory in New York Appeals Court. Wey solicits media attention and bills himself as an expert in U.S.-China trade relations. He has appeared on various TV media outlets including The Wall Street Journal  TV, Fox Business News and TheStreetTV. In a "Columbia Journalism Review" column in 2010, financial journalist Felix Salmon cited Wey's pursuit of publicity as an example of persons receiving media placement because of the hiring of public relations representatives and not their expertise. Wey also contributed articles to the digital publication "TheBlot", where he was described as an "investigative reporter." In 2015, he was named as defendant in a defamation suit stemming from his articles critical of a FINRA arbitrator and Georgetown University law professor Christopher Brummer. An injunction was issued preventing "The Blot" from writing about Brummer while  the suit was pending. In September 2017, the Electronic Frontier Foundation called on New York Court to vacate this unconstitutional injunction against offensive free speech. On November 15, 2018, the New York Court of Appeals, First Division ruled in favor of "The Blot" magazine against Brummer “on the law and the facts.” In 2016, "Bloomberg Businessweek" and the "Columbia Journalism Review", reported that Wey used "The Blot" Magazine to defame and threaten investigative journalists Dune Lawrence ("Bloomberg Businessweek") and Roddy Boyd, a former writer for The New York Post and later founded the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation. the Blot's  articles accused Boyd and Lawrence of illegal stock short selling tied to organized crime. Victory Against Accuser of An $850 Million ‘Sexual Harassment’ Lawsuit. In July 2014, Wey was sued by a former summer intern Hannah Bouveng, who alleged that he was wrongfully fired after he reported that another employee was "repeatedly and consistently” the subject of "disgusting and degrading quid pro quo sexual harassment". The intern filed an $850 million lawsuit against Wey's company. Law360 quoted Wey as saying that the lawsuits were "frivolous" and "an extortion attempt." The trial which took place in June 2015  ended with the jury awarding Bouveng $18 million—$2 million in compensatory damages and $16 million in punitive damages, primarily for defamation by Wey, NYGG, and its subsidiary FNL Media who publish "TheBlot". The allegations of assault and battery were rejected by the jurors. In April 2016, the award was reduced to $5.6 million by a Federal District Court judge. Wey filed a counterclaim against Bouveng and in June 2018, Bouveng filed court documents withdrawing and dismissing the claims against Wey with prejudice. The new court documents declare the whole judgment “null and void.” Indictment for Fraud, Exonerated , Government Voluntary Dismissal of All Charges. Wey's Wall Street offices had been searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in January 2012 as part of a continuing investigation. According to David Barboza writing in "The New York Times", it was the "strongest indication yet" that US federal investigators may have started to probe the advisers and promoters involved in "so-called backdoor listings of Chinese companies." In September 2015, Wey was charged eith eight counts of conspiracy, securities and wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with his reverse merger scheme and involving the companies SmartHeat, Deer Consumer Products , and CleanTech Innovations. Wey was accused of using the offshore accounts to cloak transactions between Chinese operating companies and American shell companies. In addition to the criminal charges, the SEC filed a parallel civil lawsuit against Wey which also included as defendants Wey's wife, his sister, and two of his attorneys, all of whom were alleged by SEC complaint to have committed "violations or the aiding and abetting of violations of the antifraud provisions and the disclosure and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws". In a June 2017 order by New York Federal Judge Alison Nathan, all of  the evidence seized in connection with the searches conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was thrown out on Fourth Amendment grounds against unreasonable searches and seizure, ruling that the Department of Justice and FBI's illegal conduct against Wey and his family “reflects, at least, grossly negligent or reckless disregard of the strictures of the Fourth Amendment”. The United States Department of Justice voluntarily withdrew the indictment on August 8, 2017 as a result of the court order. In September 2017, the SEC dropped its fraud charges against Wey and his wife. Wey and his family were exonerated. Sued  the NASDAQ for Lying to the Feds, Malicious Prosecution. In April 2018, Wey sued the Nasdaq Stock Market and 13 Nasdaq for $659 million. The lawsuit defendants included Michael Emen, Edwards Knight and NASADQ CEO Adena Friedman for malicious prosecution and lying to the SEC, DOJ and FBI with fabricated Nasdaq listing rule violation, which had led to the DOJ indictment and SEC charges against Wey. In a March 2019 ruling in Wey’s favor, New York federal judge John Keenan found the NASDAQ never had a listing rule (the violation of this non-existing rule was the cause  of Wey’s now dismissed indictment.) The case is ongoing in New York.