The death of financier Danny Pang, who was found dead in September while facing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges of running a massive Ponzi scheme, has been ruled a suicide, coroner's officials said on Monday.
"We did determine that the cause of death was suicide due to the combined effects of multiple drugs," a spokeswoman for the Orange County Coroner's Office told Reuters.
She said the drugs found in Pang's system included the painkillers oxycodone, oxymorphone and hydrocodone, among others.
Police had earlier said there was no sign of foul play and had called the financier's death a probable suicide.
Pang, 42, was found unconscious in his home on Sept 12 and pronounced dead later that day at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach. An autopsy was conducted at the time but the cause of death was held pending toxicology tests.
Pang was accused by the SEC of operating a Ponzi scheme on mainly Taiwanese investors through his Private Equity Management Group LLC and Private Equity Management Group Inc, or PEMGroup.
He was charged in April of 2009 with trying to hide about $300,000 (185,000 pounds) in U.S. bank transactions from government currency reporting requirements and was free on $1 million bail at the time of his death.
Some of Pang's personal assets had been frozen and his Irvine-based companies were being run by a court-appointed receiver as the result of an SEC civil lawsuit.
He had faced up to 10 years in prison in the criminal case.
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