A U.S. jury on Wednesday handed down guilty verdicts against Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos Asset Management, and co-defendant Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan at the end of a two-month trial on criminal charges related to his company's 2021 bankruptcy. Hwang, 60, pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud, three counts of fraud and seven counts of market manipulation, but was found guilty on 10 of the 11 charges. He now faces up to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted, although any sentence is likely to be much lower. According to prosecutors, Hwang secretly accumulated huge stakes in multiple companies without actually holding the stocks. Archegos' market position swelled to $160 billion at one point because they adopted a deceptive trading strategy that concealed their true size from the market. The use of borrowed money and derivative securities that do not need to be publicly reported allowed Hwang and his hedge fund to remain anonymous. Archegos collapsed in March 2021, as Wall Street scrambled to liquidate positions related to Archegos. When the dust settled, it caused more than $10 billion in losses to counterparties including Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley and Nomura. The incident also sowed the seeds for Credit Suisse's bankruptcy. #opbnb