New York CNN —In the spring of 2021, you might have heard about a small investment firm with an odd name, Archegos, that imploded practically overnight and left big Wall Street banks sweating over billions of dollars in losses. Put simply, prosecutors say Hwang had used financial instruments called “total return swaps” to gain exposure to the stocks without actually owning them. Over the course of a year, prosecutors say, Hwang grew his $1.5 billion portfolio into a $35 billion portfolio. Why the case mattersWhite-collar crime on Wall Street may seem like a distant problem for most Americans, and that may be true. And sometimes, as in the financial crisis of 2008, it was a bit of Wall Street tinkering in derivatives contracts that blew up in banks’ faces and collapsed the housing market.

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Persons: CNN Business ’, Bill Hwang, Hwang, Matt Egan, Banks, Archegos, ” Hwang, Hwang didn’t, ”, isn’t, Dennis Kelleher Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Archegos, Management, Viacom, Discovery, Warner Bros, CNN, Term Capital Management, Credit Suisse, Employees, Bloomberg, Tiger Asia Management Locations: New York, Korean, York City, ’