Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
Archegos Capital Management
The New York family office of Sung Kook "Bill" Hwang, a former Tiger Management analyst whose hedge fund Tiger Asia had settled SEC insider-trading and manipulation charges and pleaded guilty to a criminal charge in December 2012. Archegos used total return swaps with about ten prime brokers to build concentrated, levered long positions in a handful of US media and Chinese internet stocks. According to the SEC, it grew from ~$1.5bn of capital with ~$10bn of exposure in March 2020 to more than $36bn with ~$160bn of exposure at its peak in March 2021 (SEC press release 2022-70, 27 Apr 2022). When ViacomCBS sold new shares in the week of 22 Mar 2021, its margin calls rose to more than $13bn (CFTC complaint, as summarised in CFTC release 8520-22). Archegos could not pay, and it defaulted on 26 Mar 2021 (Shared facts). The banks' fire sales cost them more than $10bn, including ~$5.5bn at Credit Suisse and ~$2.9bn at Nomura (Shared facts). Hwang was convicted in July 2024 and sentenced to 18 years in November 2024. For a trading book, Archegos is the clearest modern case of hidden leverage: one client's book was split across many lenders, and each lender sized margin on the slice it could see. Its story turns on survival. Leverage plus concentration plus illiquidity meant a fall in one concentrated stock (size of the first fall: verify) started the end of a fortune the SEC put at more than $36bn.
At a glance
- Founded
- Tiger Asia Management launched 2001 with Julian Robertson seed money (reported); turned into a family office and renamed Archegos Capital Management in early 2013 after the Dec 2012 settlements (reported, verify the exact date) (Finance KB)
- Founder
- Sung Kook "Bill" Hwang (born 1964 in South Korea; UCLA, Carnegie Mellon MBA; Tiger Management Asia analyst from the mid-1990s — Finance KB, reported)
- Headquarters
- Midtown Manhattan, New York
- Ownership / structure
- Private single-family office managing Hwang's own money; no outside investors; not registered with the SEC as an adviser (family-office exemption under the Advisers Act — SEC rule of 2011, from memory, verify)
- Type (this KB)
- Single-event blow-up: a family office trading a concentrated, levered long equity book through swaps. This profile has 7 moves — the 5–7 allowed for single-event entities (blueprint rule 6) — because few decisions before 2020 are documented
- People at collapse
- Bill Hwang; Patrick Halligan (CFO); Scott Becker (chief risk officer); William Tomita (head trader) (SEC 2022-70)
- Peak scale
- >$36bn of capital and ~$160bn of exposure, March 2021 (SEC 2022-70; Finance KB gives ">$35bn"; the SEC's release says "more than $36 billion" — this file uses the SEC wording). Largest position ~70% of net asset value while Archegos told counterparties 35% (CFTC complaint, as summarised by the CFTC — an allegation)
- How it held positions
- Total return swaps (cash-settled, bilateral) plus some prime-brokerage cash equity, with Credit Suisse, Nomura, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, MUFG, Mizuho and Jefferies (Finance KB, reported)
- Price of the end
- Bank losses >$10bn: Credit Suisse ~$5.5bn; Nomura ~$2.9bn; Morgan Stanley ~$911m; UBS ~$861m; MUFG ~$300m; Mizuho ~$100m (Finance KB; the smaller figures reported, verify); Archegos's equity wiped out
- Legal outcome
- SEC, CFTC and SDNY charges 27 Apr 2022; Hwang convicted on 10 of 11 counts (10 Jul 2024); sentenced to 18 years on 20 Nov 2024 (prosecutors sought 21); Halligan sentenced to 8 years on 27 Jan 2025 (Reuters/Bloomberg via search); Tomita and Becker pleaded guilty and cooperated
7 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2001
Tiger Asia Launch as a Tiger Cub
Founding or fund launch
2012
Tiger Asia Insider Case and Guilty Plea
Regulatory, enforcement or legal action (failure)
2013
Refounding as a Family Office
Return of outside capital / strategy pivot (hedge fund to family office)
2014
Swap Based Prime Broker Network
Leverage, sizing or risk-limit change (synthetic financing across many prime brokers)
2020
Concentrated Leverage Build Up
Large trade or position
2021
ViacomCBS Offering Margin Calls and Default
Loss, drawdown or blow-up response; counterparty or clearing event (failure)
2022
Indictment Conviction and Sentence
Regulatory, enforcement or legal action