(Jan 22): Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang is seeking a presidential pardon for his conviction in a high-profile Wall Street fraud case over the collapse of his US$36 billion family office, which scorched banks and helped topple Credit Suisse Group AG.
Hwang, who’s free on bail while appealing the verdict behind his 18-year sentence, submitted a pardon application to the Justice Department last year, according to a notice on the DOJ’s website. In 2024, a jury found him guilty of fraud and market manipulation after prosecutors accused him of deceiving lenders to ramp up stock bets that sent prices soaring — a scheme that spectacularly imploded in March 2021.
Hwang’s petition follows the Justice Department process for leniency used by thousands of people every year — a system President Donald Trump has often sidestepped in his second term. Beyond that channel is a supercharged pardon economy, in which some lawyers quote as much as US$1 million to put cases together and get them in front of the White House for consideration, Bloomberg News has reported. Hwang’s notice doesn’t specify who filed his petition, and it’s unclear whether anyone reached out to the White House on his behalf.
A White House official wouldn’t comment on the specific case but said the president is the final decider on all pardons and commutations. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment, and a lawyer handling Hwang’s appeal didn’t respond to messages.
Hwang was represented at trial by Barry Berke, a white collar defence lawyer who played roles in Trump’s impeachments, including serving as chief impeachment counsel for the House of Representatives. The investor has since enlisted a new legal team led by appeals specialist Alexandra Shapiro. She’s known for her roster of financial-world clients and celebrities, including crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried and music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The collapse of Archegos reduced Hwang’s personal wealth to a small fraction of the billions of dollars he once commanded. But his non-profit Grace and Mercy Foundation still held well over US$700 million at the end of 2024, a filing shows.
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So far in his second term, Trump has issued more than 1,600 pardons or commutations, according to the Justice Department. The vast bulk of his grants of clemency have been to people charged in connection with the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
The Justice Department generally waits for appeals to run their course before it takes action, and federal guidelines advise applicants to wait five years before seeking a pardon. But Trump has sometimes intervened much earlier, granting relief before sentences are served or even start.
The president has said he’s using his clemency powers to correct abuses in the criminal-justice system against those prosecuted for political reasons, particularly under former president Joe Biden. But Trump’s critics say he’s undermining the work of Justice Department prosecutors by giving pardons and commutations to undeserving recipients who gain access to him, including political donors.
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In Hwang’s case, prosecutors said the veteran investor directed Archegos staff to tell banks his firm had large positions in tech giants like Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp. In reality, its money was heavily concentrated in a small group of fairly illiquid stocks, most notably the company then known as ViacomCBS. To maximise his trades’ impact, Archegos executives typically bought swaps, knowing that counterparty banks would hedge by directly buying shares.
When his bets became unsustainable, it set off a cascade of margin calls that saddled banks including Credit Suisse, Nomura Holdings Inc and Morgan Stanley with about US$10 billion of losses. UBS Group AG later took over Credit Suisse in an emergency merger arranged by Swiss authorities.
The indictment was the first big white-collar prosecution brought by then-Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams after his appointment by Biden. Trump replaced Williams last year. Hwang’s trial was overseen by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, the 92-year-old has been assigned the US case against ousted Venezuela leader Nicolás Maduro.
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