Multibillion-Dollar Fraud Trial Against Archegos Founder Nears Its End

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The collapse of Archegos Capital Management in spring 2021, which caused billions in losses for a handful of Wall Street banks, was the result of “lies and manipulation” by Bill Hwang, the firm’s founder, a federal prosecutor told a jury in Manhattan on Monday. During closing arguments, Andrew Thomas, the prosecutor, said that Mr. Hwang had defrauded the banks and other traders in the market by artificially inflating stock prices to pump up the size of Archegos. Barry Berke, a lawyer for Mr. Hwang, said the government was criminalizing his client’s high-risk trading only because it caused losses for the banks that had lent him billions of dollars. “Mr. Hwang bet on companies he believed in,” Mr. Berke said. “That is not manipulative.” Mr. Hwang, 60, is charged with 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and market manipulation. If convicted on all counts, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.