Description
Archegos Capital Management was a limited partnership family office that managed the personal assets of Bill Hwang, at one time managing over $36 billion in assets.
On April 27, 2022, Hwang was indicted and arrested on federal charges of fraud and racketeering.
On March 26, 2021, Archegos defaulted on margin calls from several global investment banks, including Credit Suisse and Nomura Holdings, as well as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The firm had large, concentrated positions in ViacomCBS, Baidu, Vipshop, Farfetch, and other companies, and the firm's use of total return swaps had helped to hide its high exposure from lending banks. Its derivative contracts "exposed the firm to severe losses when the trades went bad." The Wall Street Journal reported that Hwang lost $8 billion in 10 days, while Bloomberg News reported that Hwang lost $20 billion in 2 days. The fate of Archegos has been compared to the meltdown caused by Long Term Capital Management.
