Sung Kook 'Bill' Hwang, the founder and head of a private investment firm known as Archegos, leaves a Manhattan federal courthouse, in New York, on April 27, 2022.Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang’s criminal racketeering trial over the collapse of Archegos Capital Management begins on Wednesday with the selection of jurors who will decide if he and a deputy broke the law in a massive stock scheme that unravelled in just days in 2021.
They also claim Hwang and former Archegos Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan then lied about their holdings to sustain their business relationship with global banks. Hwang’s lawyers have described the case as the “most aggressive open market manipulation case ever” brought by prosecutors.Archegos head trader William Tomita and Chief Risk Officer Scott Becker have pleaded guilty to related charges and are expected to testify at the trial.
Archegos’ March 2021 collapse stemmed from Hwang’s use of financial contracts known as total return swaps to take outsized stakes in his favourite holdings without actually owning the stock.