(Bloomberg) -- The dramatic 2021 collapse of Archegos Capital Management will be revisited in a criminal trial over the next two months, as prosecutors aim to convict founder Bill Hwang for market manipulation, racketeering and fraud.

Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in the case against Hwang, who’s accused of misleading some of Wall Street’s biggest banks into inflating the value of Archegos’ holdings to as high as $160 billion before the family office imploded. Read a recap of what the case is about.

Here’s a look at the main players in the legal drama about to unfold in Manhattan federal court:

Defendants

Sung Kook “Bill” HwangAge: 60Roles: Archegos Founder and CEOOne of Julian Robertson’s Tiger “cubs,” Hwang founded his own hedge fund called Tiger Asia Management in 2001. He converted it into a family office called Archegos in 2013, a year after Tiger Asia pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $60 million to resolve an insider trading investigation. Hwang immigrated to the US from South Korea as a teenager and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. A devout Christian, Hwang has lived modestly in Tenafly, New Jersey, and has devoted much of his wealth to his charity, the Grace & Mercy Foundation. Archegos, an ancient Greek word for leader or author, is a reference to Jesus.

Patrick HalliganAge: 47Role: Archegos CFO

Hwang’s most trusted lieutenant, Halligan was also previously CFO at Tiger Asia. Like his boss, the Manhattan College graduate and certified public accountant has lived a relatively modest lifestyle as a father of three in suburban Long Island. He continues to work for Hwang as treasurer of the Grace & Mercy Foundation, where he was paid $539,000 plus benefits in 2022. 

Witnesses

William TomitaAge: 40Role: Archegos Head Trader

One of two former staffers who’ve pleaded guilty and are expected to testify against Hwang and Halligan, Tomita is the son of a prominent Chicago surgeon. An avid polo player, he briefly worked at Lehman Brothers before joining Tiger Asia in 2008 at the age of 24. As part of his 2022 plea deal, he admitted making false statements to banks to persuade them to enter into swap agreements with Archegos on margin. Prosecutors will likely elicit testimony from Tomita that he did so at Hwang and Halligan’s direction.

Scott BeckerAge: 40Role: Archegos Chief Risk Officer

Becker is the other cooperating witness in the case. The summa cum laude Manhattan College accounting graduate joined Tiger Asia as an associate in 2007 after reaching out to fellow alumnus Halligan about job opportunities. Like Tomita, Becker has admitted that he lied to other financial institutions about Archegos’s holdings as part of a scheme to get them to extend credit or take part in swap transactions. 

Judge

Alvin HellersteinAge: 90Role: US District Judge, Southern District of New York

Hellerstein was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in May 1998. A New York City native, Hellerstein is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and went to Columbia University for both college and law school. He worked in private practice for decades before becoming a judge. He’s perhaps best known for overseeing the lengthy litigation stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center terrorist attack. 

Prosecutors

Matthew PodolskyRole: Assistant US Attorney

Podolsky is co-chief of the securities and commodities task force at the Manhattan US attorney’s office. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, Podolsky was one of the lead prosecutors in the fraud case against Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for misleading investors about the electric-truck maker’s prospects.Alex RossmillerRole: Assistant US Attorney

A graduate of Middlebury College and New York University School of Law, Rossmiller had a pre-law career as a Defense Department intelligence analyst, which saw him deployed to Iraq for six months. A federal prosecutor since 2014, he participated in the sex-trafficking cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Though he worked on the case, Rossmiller isn’t part of the trial team.Samuel RothschildRole: Assistant US AttorneyA Columbia Law School graduate and US Supreme Court clerk, Rothschild was part of the team that negotiated a six month deferred-prosecution agreement with former Morgan Stanley banker Pawan Passi, who pleaded not guilty to securities fraud but agreed to a one-year to from the brokerage business to resolve a probe into block-trading. Passi, who had dealings with Archegos, is on a list of potential trial witnesses.

Alexandra RothmanRole: Assistant US Attorney

Rothman, a graduate of Princeton University and Fordham University School of Law, has been a federal prosecutor since 2017. She helped prosecute Stephen Calk, a Chicago banker convicted of pushing through $16 million in sketchy loans to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chief Paul Manafort.

Danielle SassoonRole: Assistant US AttorneyA former clerk for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Sassoon worked on the case but is not on the trial team. She's best known for her role in the recent fraud prosecution of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Her relentless cross-examination of the crypto mogul was one of the highlights of the trial and likely contributed to his swift conviction by the jury.

Andrew Mark ThomasRole: Assistant US AttorneyThomas, a Yale Law School graduate, is a veteran of several financial crime cases. He last year successfully prosecuted former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker Brijesh Goel for insider trading and Glen Point Capital co-founder Neil Phillips for foreign-exchange market manipulation. 

Defense Lawyers

Barry BerkeAge: 60Role: Hwang’s Lawyer

Berke chairs the litigation department at New York law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. A Harvard Law School graduate, Berke began his legal career as a trial lawyer for the Federal Defenders, the federal-court equivalent of the public defenders’ office. In private practice, he’s represented many high-profile white-collar defendants. Berke also served as chief impeachment counsel for the US House of Representatives in the first Senate trial of then-President Trump.

Jordan EstesAge: 41Roles: Hwang’s Lawyer

Estes joined Kramer Levin as a partner in May 2023 after more than eight years as a Manhattan federal prosecutor, including as a senior member of the securities and commodities fraud tax force now co-led by Podolsky. A Harvard law graduate, she was part of the Milton prosecution and also helped convict former Indiana Congressman Stephen Buyer for insider trading. 

Dani JamesAge: 54Role: Hwang’s Lawyer

A former Manhattan federal prosecutor who joined Kramer Levin in 2007, James co-chairs the firm’s white-collar defense practice. She’s represented several Wall Street clients, including Paul Menefee, a former Barclays Plc banker who agreed to settle a probe of the bank’s issuance of mortgage-backed securities ahead of the financial crisis.Mary MulliganAge: 62Role: Halligan’s lawyer

Mulligan is a former prosecutor who’s now head of Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman & Robbins’ white collar defense practice. She recently represented former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud and other charges for accepting unreported perks like luxury housing and cars as salary.

Read more: 

• A Blockbuster Wall Street Trial Begins
• The Criminal Case Against Bill Hwang, Explained

(Updates with additional prosecutors.)

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