Hedge Funds

Fund manager Bill Hwang’s Archegos was a ‘house of cards’ prosecutor tells jury

Hwang, on trial for fraud and racketeering related to his firm’s meltdown, maintains his trading practices were lawful

Tuesday 14 May 2024 at 06:07

Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos, at federal court in New York on 13 May.
Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos, at federal court in New York on 13 May. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg News

The trial of Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang began on 13 May with prosecutors telling a federal jury that the former fund manager manipulated markets and defrauded banks in the lead-up to the meltdown of his firm.

“Bill Hwang was a billionaire, but he risked nearly everything because he wanted more,” assistant US attorney Alexandra Rothman said in a Manhattan courtroom. Archegos, she said, was a “house of cards built on manipulation and lies.”