For SDNY
Case of Hwang For Archegos $34B Meltdown
US Specifies Tiger Asia Evidence
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 1 – In the wake of
the Archegos meltdown, the
other shoe dropped on April
27, when the US Attorney for
the SDNY unsealed and
indictment charging Bill Hwang
Patrick Halligan, Archegos’s
CFO with racketeering
conspiracy, securities fraud,
and wire fraud
offenses.
Inner City
Press went to the SDNY press
conference to ask, What about
Credit Suisse and Nomura and
people in those banks? What
about the massive family
office loophope to the
Investment Advisors Act of
1940? This has come up in the
OneCoin fraud case, on which
the Office used perjured
testimony and now agrees to
delay after delay.
Damian
William referred obliquely to
Hwang doing it in the dark,
but otherwise the issue -
which is addressed by a
pending bill in Congress - did
not come up. Nor did Lisa
Monaco, present in New York
for the presser, address it.
On June 1, newly
assigned District Judge Alvin
K. Hellerstein held a
conference in the case. Inner
City Press attended and live
tweet it here
(and asked defense counsel a
question later, here).
Thread
here.
And after,
stand-up here,
short Q&A here.
On June 20,
2023 Judge
Hellerstein pushed the
trial back: "Trial in the
above-captioned criminal
matter, by request of all
parties, is adjourned from
January 9, 2024 to February
20, 2024 at 10:00 a.m., in
Courtroom 14D. The Final
Pretrial Conference will be
held on February 14, 2024 at
2:30 p.m. Time is excluded in
the interest of justice from
January 9, 2024 to February
20, 2024 pursuant to 18 U.S.C.
§ 3161. SO ORDERED (Signed by
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on
6/20/2023)."
On July 27, Hwang
wrote in seeking approval of
subpoenas to Goldman Sachs,
Morgan Stanley, Bank of
Montreal, Credit Suisse, UBS,
Nomura, MUFG, Mizuho,
Macquarie, Jeffries and
Deutsche Bank, to show he did
not "use his lawfully executed
swaps to artificially impact
the prices of the underlying
stocks."
Jump cut to
November 14, 2023 when Judge
Hellerstein held an oral
argument on the subpoena
requests. Inner City Press
attended, in mask, and
tweeted, threadette:
Hwang is here at
defense table, with COVID mask
and foyr lawyers at table, one
behind.
Judge
Hellerstein: Manipulation for
manipulation is meaningless.
How was it intended to make
money? When? There are many
different ways to hedge. I'd
like to see them narrowed
Berke: Your
Honor, you've done a lot of
cases, but this is the 1st one
in which DOJ is charging
manipulation of swaps
Judge: It's hard
to defend against
manipulation. Mr Berke
deserves a discussion. US v
Nixon provides the boundary.
Berke: Thank you
And well
he might say that - it seemed
the defense won this round. He
mocked what he called the
prosecution's theory of "pump
and brag," that Hwang did it
to brag he'd built a family
office into a major firm.
On January 3,
2024, still mostly masked,
Judge Hellerstein said the
proposed experts are
qualified, that sufficient
notice is the issue. He said
he will follow Judge Jed
Rakoff's decision in US v.
Mrabet, which Inner City Press
also covered. At the end
Judge Hellerstein said, with a
laugh, Don't settle this case,
I want to try it.
More details on
Substack here
On May 1, 2024,
the US Attorney's Office wrote
in to specify that at trial
they intend to put forward
evidence about Archegos'
predecessor Tiger Asia,
including that the SEC banned
Hwang from acting, among other
things, as an investment
adviser.
Watch this site.
Back on March 21,
2023 Judge Hellerstein held an
hour and a half proceeding in
which he denied more than a
dozen motions by Team Hwang.
Inner City Press was there and
live tweeted, thread here.
More including on
Halligan on Substack here.
Later - after re-up
of book
and talk to NYU Journalism
School, here
and here
- in the SDNY Magistrate a
defendant was detained until
trial, charged as a felon in
possession. We'll have more,
much more, on this.
The case is US v.
Hwang, 22-cr-240 (Hellerstein)
***
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