Bill Hwang, the founder of the now-defunct financial firm Archegos, has leveled serious allegations against the prosecuting attorney’s office. The accusations revolve around the trading data of the company, which spectacularly collapsed in 2021, causing the major bank Credit Suisse to lose several billion and a lot of trust.
The double scandal involving Archegos Capital Management and the closed Greensill funds marked the downfall of Credit Suisse (CS) in the spring of 2021. The bank never recovered from the billion-dollar losses from the Archegos engagement and the associated loss of trust, which ultimately resulted in a distress takeover by UBS.
Hwang, the founder of the bankrupt New York firm, was arrested two years ago and has since been defending himself in a fraud trial. As reported by the agency “Reuters”, Hwang has now gone on the offensive with a new application.
He accuses the prosecutor’s office of not presenting a huge amount of 14 gigabytes of trading information in time, thereby hindering his defense. In a submission to the federal court in Manhattan, Hwang stated that the defense only found out last Friday that the prosecutor’s office had not submitted the data, which comprises 27 million lines and 63 columns, even though it had received it in November 2021. He called it a “serious failure” to have withheld the data for 17 months.
As a result, his preparations for the upcoming trial on February 20 were “paralyzed”. According to his submission, the prosecutor’s office should have presented the trading data in August 2022.
“The prosecutor’s office has left the defense believing for more than a year that the undisclosed trading data does not exist,” the complaint reportedly states. “In this way, the prosecutor’s office and its experts have gained a huge information advantage that jeopardizes the defendant’s right to a fair trial.”
The co-defendant former CFO of Archegos, Patrick Halligan, joined the application. The prosecutor’s office rejected the allegations and denied that the data was completely new. The submission was a trick to prevent the jurors from recognizing the facts. The court requested an extension to prepare a dismissal.
Hwang is accused of having built up a stock engagement of $160 billion through so-called total return swaps and aggressive borrowing. When the prices of those titles began to fall, the company was unable to meet the margin call against the creditor banks. This then led to billion-dollar losses at CS and its Japanese competitor Nomura.
In September 2023, the court in the criminal proceedings rejected a dismissal of the lawsuit and set the start of the trial for February 20. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also filed a civil lawsuit against Hwang and Halligan in this context. However, this is on hold until the criminal proceedings are completed.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇨🇭 |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Bill Hwang, Patrick Halligan |
| Companies | Nomura, Credit Suisse, Archegos Capital Management, UBS, Securities and Exchange Commission |
| Currencies | US Dollar |
| Securities | None |
