Bill Hwang – the investor and Archegos Capital Management founder currently facing fraud charges – has been temporarily released on a $100 million bail.
According to Yahoo! News, Hwang made his first public appearance yesterday following his arrest early the same morning. He entered a plea of not guilty. To secure the bail, the businessman agreed to forfeit $5 million in cash as well as two of his properties, including his personal residence.
Hwang was instructed to hand over his passport to prevent him from travelling internationally. However, he said he recently lost it, so his wife agreed to provide hers instead.
Federal prosecutors confirmed yesterday that they arrested Hwang as well as Archegos’ Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan on criminal charges. The pair are accused of “manipulative trading” and “deceptive conduct” after allegedly committing fraud.
Hwang and Halligan are facing a variety 11 criminal charges, including racketeering, market manipulation, securities fraud, and wire fraud.
"We allege that these defendants and their co-conspirators lied to banks to obtain billions of dollars that they then used to inflate the stock price of a number of publicly-traded companies," Damian Williams, Manhattan U.S. attorney, explained in a statement to the media.
“The lies fed the inflation, and the inflation led to more lies. Round and round it went,” he continued.
Like Hwang, Halligan also pleaded not guilty to the charges and secured bail for himself. However, his bond was substantially lower at $1 million. Both men are set to return to court in lower Manhattan on May 19th.
Hwang’s legal team has been vocal about the investor’s plans to fight the criminal charges, arguing the state doesn’t have enough evidence to back up their claims.
"We are extremely disappointed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has seen fit to indict a case that has absolutely no factual or legal basis; a prosecution of this type, for open-market transactions, is unprecedented and threatens all investors," Hwang’s lawyer Lawrence Lustberg stated.
The attorney added that Hwang is “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing” and “there is no evidence whatsoever that he committed any kind of crime.”
Halligan’s lawyer, Mary Mulligan, echoed a similar sentiment, noting her client is "innocent and will be exonerated."
ABC News explains the pair’s criminal actions affected the stock prices of many companies, compromised the savings of employees, and left banks with billion-dollar loses.
However, it personally benefited Hwang and Halligan. Hwang’s net worth rose from $1.5 billion to $35 billion in one year due to the illicit activity, the publication notes. With a net worth like that, $100 million in bond money may not be such a big deal after all.
Sources: Yahoo! News, ABC News,
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