The founder of the hedge fund Archegos Bill Hwang (58) and his chief financial officer Patrick Halligan have been charged by a Manhattan court with stock market fraud and extortion. This emerges from a court document seen on Wednesday by the AFP news agency.
According to the allegations, the two defendants are said to have tried to manipulate the market. A number of global banks and investors suffered billions of dollars in losses when the Archegos fund collapsed in March 2021.
Hwang polarized with religious statements
A total of CHF 20 billion was lost. Credit Suisse, which suffered a total loss of CHF 5 billion last year, was hit hardest. But UBS also had to announce a loss of 774 million from the Archegos debacle in the first quarter of 2021.
Archegos founder Bill Hwang himself was in the limelight. The billionaire is a native Korean and lives in the United States. In the past, he often sought out the public stage, polarizing people with his religious views, for example. Hwang is a strict Christian, saying in interviews that he invests his money in a way that “pleasing God”. Since the collapse of Archegos, however, things have gone quiet around Hwang. (SDA/sfa)
