Bill Hwang

Bill Hwang grew up in South Korea and studied economics in the United States. He worked for Julian Robertson at Tiger Management and later founded Tiger Asia Management, a hedge fund focused on Asian equities. Tiger Asia pleaded guilty to US securities fraud charges related to insider trading in Chinese bank stocks in 2012, and Hwang paid $44 million in settlements. After closing Tiger Asia, Hwang founded Archegos Capital Management as a family office — a structure that, unlike hedge funds, faces lower reporting requirements. Through Archegos, Hwang built concentrated long positions in a handful of companies — including ViacomCBS, Discovery, Shopify, and Chinese technology stocks — using total return swaps (TRS) that allowed him to gain economic exposure without owning shares outright. Because TRS are OTC derivatives, these positions did not require disclosure. By early 2021 Archegos had accumulated total exposure estimated at over $100 billion, funded primarily by prime brokerage leverage. In March 2021, when ViacomCBS announced a stock offering, its share price fell, triggering margin calls. The rapid unwind of Archegos's positions caused a massive liquidation in several stocks, with Credit Suisse losing approximately $5.5 billion, Nomura $2.8 billion, and several other banks suffering losses. In 2022 Hwang was indicted on fraud and racketeering charges. His case became the defining example of the risks created by leveraged family offices and the opacity of TRS positions.