NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) - Sung Kook "Bill" Hwang,

founder of the $36 billion private investment firm Archegos

Capital Management which collapsed spectacularly in 2021,

arrived in court on Wednesday for the start of his criminal

trial.

Here is a timeline of the fund's blow up - one of the

biggest in years - which left global banks with $10 billion in

losses:

1996-2001: Hwang, who moved to the United States as a child from

South Korea, works at the late billionaire Julian Robertson's

pioneering hedge fund Tiger Management, where he hones his

stock-picking skills.

2001: Hwang launches his own hedge fund, Tiger Asia Management.

The firm was started with seed money from Robertson, making him

part of an elite group of the billionaire's protégés dubbed the

Tiger Cubs.

2012: Regulatory issues in Hong Kong and the United States lead

Tiger Asia Management to shut down in 2012. Hwang pleads guilty

to wire fraud relating to illegal trading of Chinese bank stocks

and separately pays $44 million to U.S. authorities to settle

insider trading charges.

2013: Hwang turns Tiger Asia into a family office, renaming

it Archegos Capital Management in early 2013.

March 2020: Operating from his Manhattan apartment as COVID-19

sweeps New York, Hwang begins amassing huge positions in a

handful of securities, including media company ViacomCBS, using

derivatives he trades with Wall Street banks. The trades allow

Hwang to accumulate leveraged positions in the stocks without

owning them and without having to disclose his stakes.

March 2021: ViacomCBS announces a stock sale which sends its

share price tanking, setting off alarm bells at Archegos' banks.

Banks call on the fund for more collateral to cover the

increased exposure on the swaps. But Archegos does not have

enough liquidity to meet the calls.

That leads to some banks dumping the stocks that back his swaps,

causing big losses for Archegos and its lenders, such as Credit

Suisse, now part of UBS, and Nomura Holdings ( NMR ).

As banks begin to report losses, regulators including the SEC

start probing the collapse of the fund.

April 2022: Federal prosecutors charge Hwang with 11 criminal

counts and Archegos' former chief financial officer, Patrick

Halligan, with three criminal counts.

Authorities allege Hwang and Halligan lied to banks in order

to increase Archegos' credit lines and use the borrowed money to

manipulate stock prices.

Hwang faces charges of racketeering, securities fraud,

securities fraud of counterparties and wire fraud along with

seven counts of market manipulation. Halligan is charged with

racketeering, wire fraud and securities fraud of counterparties.

Both plead not guilty to charges and are released on bail.

Hwang's attorneys' did not immediately respond to a request

seeking comment.

May 2024: Hwang and Halligan's trial kicks off. They are

expected to argue that prosecutors are overreaching by pushing a

novel market manipulation theory.

Hwang and Archegos have argued that the SEC has failed to show

how the New York-based firm traded deceptively or how its swaps

trades, which they say are lawful, affected prices.