Christian Billionaire Bill Hwang Convicted of Fraud
On Oct. 25, 2019, Ravi Zacharias (right) interviews billionaire Bill Hwang at an RZIM Founder’s Weekend event in Aventura, Florida. (Courtesy Photo)
A Christian billionaire and philanthropist accused of inflating a business portfolio to $36 billion was convicted Wednesday on several counts of financial fraud.
As reported by Reuters, 60-year-old Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang, founder and co-CEO of Archegos Capital Management, was convicted by a federal jury on 10 criminal counts, including one count each of racketeering and wire fraud, two counts of securities fraud, and six counts of market manipulation.
He was acquitted on an additional market manipulation charge related to a Chinese online video company, iQIYI, the media outlet reported.
Patrick Halligan, Hwang’s deputy and co-defendant, was convicted of racketeering, wire fraud and securities fraud, Reuters reported.
Both financiers face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
Hwang, the son of a Korean pastor, billed his investment firm as an outgrowth of his Christian faith but has fallen short in financial dealings, as previously reported by The Roys Report (TRR). A former Fuller Seminary trustee and major donor to Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Hwang has given millions to Christian ministries and schools, TRR previously reported.
In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Hwang with making $16.7 million in illicit profits through trading schemes involving Chinese bank stocks. To settle those charges, Hwang and his firms agreed to pay $44 million.
Years later, Hwang was the center of a major Wall Street disaster hemorrhaging millions of dollars when the feds caught up with him.
“Hwang and Halligan were able to fraudulently inflate a $1.5 billion portfolio into a $36 billion portfolio,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
During closing arguments, federal prosecutor Andrew Thomas told jurors, “By 2021, the defendants’ lies, and manipulation had ensnared nearly a dozen stocks and half of Wall Street in a $100 billion fraud, a fraud that came crashing down in a matter of days,” Reuters reported.
Hwang’s defense attorneys portrayed the indictment, according to Reuters, as the “most aggressive open market manipulation case” ever prosecuted by the feds.
Prosecutors said Archegos had as much as $36 billion in assets and $160 billion of exposure to equities. Then banks required more deposits when stock prices fell in March 2021, and Archegos could not make them. The banks sold the stocks backing Hwang’s swaps, which prosecutors claimed wiped out $100 billion in value for shareholders and billions at the banks, Reuters reported.
Federal prosecutors argued Archegos caused $10 billion in losses at global banks and more than $100 billion in shareholder losses at companies in its portfolio, according to Reuters. The losses harmed both investors and American financial markets as well as Archegos employees, prosecutors reportedly asserted.
The two-month long jury trial concluded Tuesday. Sentencing is set for Oct. 28.
This piece is republished with permission from The Roys Report.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.