Financier’s property fetches $7.3M

The site of Mariner’s Mile seafood restaurant, once owned by the late financier Danny Pang, was auctioned off Wednesday for $7.3 million.

The property, 2607 W. Coast Hwy., is home to Joe’s Crab Shack. The 100-square-foot restaurant sits on a roughly 27,000-square-foot waterfront lot that includes 400 linear feet of boat slips.

The Securities and Exchanged Commission seized the parcel and Pang’s other assets, claiming they were part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

Pang died apparently of suicide at his Newport Beach home earlier this year, while he was under house arrest. An Orange County federal grand jury indicted Pang in July on criminal charges of evading currency-reporting laws.

The SEC obtained an emergency court order earlier this year to freeze the assets of Pang and his companies, alleging that they bilked investors out of millions by misrepresenting investments in seniors’ life insurance polices and time share real estate.

The property sold for $7.3 million, plus a 10% seller’s premium, putting the total cost at $8.03 million, said Mike Walters, president of real estate auction house Tranzon Asset Strategies.

Pang bought the property in 2007 for between $12 million and $14 million, Walters said.

Tranzon would not release the buyer’s name Wednesday.

The auction attracted 35 registered bidders and a crowd of about 150 people, he said.