The Man who built over $20 billion in personal wealth and lost it all

Meet Bill Hwang

Born to a pastor’s family in South Korea, Hwang immigrated to the U.S., worked night shifts at McDonald’s, and eventually became a “Tiger Cub” under legendary investor Julian Robertson.

His first hedge fund, Tiger Asia, soared to manage $10 billion, before being brought down by insider trading violations.

Reinvention came in the form of Archegos Capital Management, a private family office that turned $200 million into $20 billion in less than a decade.

Hwang’s winning formula?

Leveraged bets on tech giants and media conglomerates, amplified by opaque financial instruments called swaps, which let him fly under the radar.

But leverage is a double-edged sword. When ViacomCBS stock plummeted in March 2021, it triggered margin calls that Archegos couldn’t meet.

Within days, $30 billion in value evaporated, leaving banks like Credit Suisse and Nomura with massive losses while Goldman Sachs and others escaped relatively unscathed.

This wasn’t just a financial debacle, it was a crisis of faith.

Hwang saw his investments as a divine mission to advance society, but his refusal to hedge or cut losses became his undoing.

Archegos’ collapse exposed gaping risks in Wall Street’s prime brokerage system, sparking calls for greater regulation of family offices.

Bill Hwang’s story is a lesson for all of us.

Fortune built on faith and borrowed money can crumble in an instant.