The Invisible Whale: The Implosion of Bill Hwang

Bill Hwang, the founder of the family office Archegos Capital Management, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for orchestrating a massive market manipulation and fraud scheme that caused a historic financial collapse in 2021. By utilizing total return swaps to conceal his ownership and deceiving lenders about the concentration of his portfolio, Hwang amassed roughly $160 billion in market exposure with dangerous levels of leverage. The rapid unwinding of these positions wiped out Hwang's personal fortune of over $30 billion and inflicted approximately $10 billion in losses on major global banks, including Credit Suisse and Nomura.