For most of his trial, Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang hasn’t looked like a man potentially facing decades in prison. Both inside and outside the courtroom, Hwang is often seen with a placid smile on his face.
That smile faded last week when former Archegos head trader William Tomita took the stand as one the prosecution’s star witnesses. When Tomita identified him in court, Hwang straightened in his chair with a rueful look.
In three days on the stand, Tomita has proved to be a highly damaging witness to Hwang. He’s given a painstaking account of how Hwang orchestrated trades to goose stocks to certain prices. He’s also vividly depicted his former boss as an overbearing micromanager who screamed at his traders when they got out of line.
“I was directed to do so by my former boss,” Tomita said of crimes he admitted committing himself, including fraud and market manipulation.
All of which raises the stakes for Hwang’s defense team on cross-examination, which could begin as early as Monday. Failing to dent Tomita’s credibility would make it very hard for Hwang to secure an acquittal.
But that may be difficult. Much of Tomita’s testimony about Hwang’s trading was backed up by copious written communications that were shown to the jury. In a number of chat message exchanges, Hwang is shown closely guiding his traders to hit certain prices, changing his target by the minute.
“These happened on a daily basis, these type of trades,” Tomita testified, adding that many of these trades were “the opposite” of what a “normal fund” would do. This matches with testimony by prosecution experts that many of Archegos trades made no economic sense except as a means of manipulating share prices.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-smile-from-hwang-s-face?srnd=homepage-europe
Bill Hwang deserves a long-term sentence to send a CLEAR MESSAGE TO ALL C_ck S_ckers enganging in such manipulative behavior.
Our desk was the first to report spoofing of CME S&P Futures and other financial instruments some 14 years ago. And we will engage with regulators to rotten out criminal market practices.
That smile faded last week when former Archegos head trader William Tomita took the stand as one the prosecution’s star witnesses. When Tomita identified him in court, Hwang straightened in his chair with a rueful look.
In three days on the stand, Tomita has proved to be a highly damaging witness to Hwang. He’s given a painstaking account of how Hwang orchestrated trades to goose stocks to certain prices. He’s also vividly depicted his former boss as an overbearing micromanager who screamed at his traders when they got out of line.
“I was directed to do so by my former boss,” Tomita said of crimes he admitted committing himself, including fraud and market manipulation.
All of which raises the stakes for Hwang’s defense team on cross-examination, which could begin as early as Monday. Failing to dent Tomita’s credibility would make it very hard for Hwang to secure an acquittal.
But that may be difficult. Much of Tomita’s testimony about Hwang’s trading was backed up by copious written communications that were shown to the jury. In a number of chat message exchanges, Hwang is shown closely guiding his traders to hit certain prices, changing his target by the minute.
“These happened on a daily basis, these type of trades,” Tomita testified, adding that many of these trades were “the opposite” of what a “normal fund” would do. This matches with testimony by prosecution experts that many of Archegos trades made no economic sense except as a means of manipulating share prices.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-smile-from-hwang-s-face?srnd=homepage-europe
Bill Hwang deserves a long-term sentence to send a CLEAR MESSAGE TO ALL C_ck S_ckers enganging in such manipulative behavior.
Our desk was the first to report spoofing of CME S&P Futures and other financial instruments some 14 years ago. And we will engage with regulators to rotten out criminal market practices.
