SAN FRANCISCO
Feds want violinist to face the music

He's arrested for fraud - allegedly ripped off instrument collectors

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, December 21, 2007

Joseph Hokai Tang's most recent violin performance in a Eugene, Ore., concert hall came with an unexpected ending.

After the strains of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 had faded from Beall Concert Hall and the orchestra had begun packing its instruments, Tang was arrested on federal fraud charges for allegedly bilking Bay Area violin collectors and dealers out of thousands of dollars in the sale of fine instruments from April 2002 through December 2006, prosecutors and police said.

Tang is charged in U.S. District Court in San Francisco with two counts of wire fraud and eight counts of mail fraud, according to an indictment made public Thursday. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors contend Tang presented himself as a broker who would take valuable violins, violas and bows on consignment and sell them. He is accused of selling the merchandise and then failing to pay the owner, lying about receiving instruments shipped to him, sending different instruments to buyers than the ones promised, and claiming to have refunded money when he hadn't, court documents show.

Alleged victims of the 28-year-old accomplished concert violinist include some of San Francisco's most distinguished violin dealers. Some of them told The Chronicle that Tang's questionable activities date back at least eight years and include transactions in Germany, Great Britain and Japan.

One of the alleged victims, Bob Ng, a retired Berkeley software executive who collects instruments, said he met Tang in mid-2005 and gave him violins and bows on consignment. But, Ng said, Tang, who had promised to sell the instruments, disappeared in late 2006 without payment. Ng estimated the value of the instruments at about $150,000.

Another alleged victim, Roland Feller, a distinguished San Francisco dealer in rare and contemporary violins, said he refurbished a violin for Tang around 1999 and then received a $1,500 check for payment - which he said bounced. Feller said he repeatedly tried to reach Tang but never got through.

"I was happy to hear that they finally caught up with him," Feller said. "He finally couldn't stay one step ahead anymore."

Tang, who made his initial court appearance Monday in San Francisco and is free on bail, did not return calls to his address listed in court records. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on details about the case.

Ng said he first encountered Tang, then a San Francisco resident, after e-mailing him about a violin Tang was selling on eBay. The two agreed to meet, discussed music and instrument collecting and eventually agreed to a consignment deal, Ng said.

"He's a very fine musician. He played the piano beautifully. He played the violin beautifully," Ng said. "He basically built my interest up, like he did to a lot of people."

After more than a year of excuses about a lack of sales, Tang disappeared in late 2006, Ng said. The Berkeley collector went to San Francisco police, who directed him to U.S. Postal Service investigators. Ng suspects Tang returned to his native Ottawa, where his mother lives.

A January 2007 photo on the Web site of the newspaper the Ottawa Citizen shows Tang standing with Dutch Ambassador Karel de Beer and his wife during the Canadian Music Competition.

Tang at one point enrolled in graduate school at the University of Oregon, police said. When a postal inspector tracked Tang to Eugene earlier this year, police found that the address he had listed with school officials was Beall Concert Hall, the primary performance hall at the School of Music and Dance, Eugene police Officer Chris White said.

Officers staked out a Nov. 28 University Symphony Orchestra concert and arrested Tang when the performance ended. Tang was escorted backstage, where he handed his violin to a colleague and was handcuffed, White said.

"We didn't want to ruin the show," White said. "It was actually a really good concert."

E-mail John Coté at jcote@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle