Korean Bill Hwang is sentenced to 21 years in prison for 'margin call incident'

Bill Hwang, a Korean-American investor accused of the Wall Street derivatives margin call in March 2021, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Reuters reported on the 15th local time that prosecutors asked Hwang to be sentenced to 21 years in prison in a Manhattan court in New York.

Prosecutors argued that Hwang, founder of Archegos Capital Management, was found guilty of market manipulation, which brought down a company worth 36 billion dollars, about 50 trillion won in our money, and caused more than 10 billion dollars in losses to lenders.

Hwang and Akegos invested $50 billion worth of shares in 2020, more than five times their holdings, through derivatives gross income swaps and difference trading agreements with investment banks.

Hwang's borrowing surged to $160 billion at the time, but when the stock price of the investment stock fell, a margin call situation occurred in which he had to pay additional deposits and the company eventually went bankrupt.

The loss suffered by investment banks is estimated to be $10 billion.

Prosecutors believe Hwang deceived the bank about Akhegos' portfolio and borrowed a large amount of money before manipulating the stock price by investing it in derivatives for the shares they hold.

However, Hwang's lawyer refutes that the prosecution failed to prove the allegation that Hwang caused losses to the bank by lying.

He also argues that Hwang has cardiovascular disease, has a low risk of recidivism, and that he has been engaged in charity activities should be taken into account in the sentence.Hwang

was convicted of 10 charges, including fraud and blackmail, in July, and a sentencing trial will be held on the 20th.