Not long ago he was playing polo on the Connecticut Gold Coast — a dashing young Wall Streeter charging hard for a winning shot.
But on April 22, with his nerves on edge, William Tomita reached for the Xanax: He was due in federal court that Friday to plead guilty in the Archegos trading debacle and to formally turn on his longtime boss, Bill Hwang. Tomita was so distressed to speak publicly, he would tell the judge, that he had to take anti-anxiety medication first.
Before him to the Manhattan courthouse had come his colleague Scott Becker, down from his home in Goshen, a quiet New York town named after the biblical land of plenty. Becker, too, had arrived to plead guilty and officially flip on Hwang, the enigmatic investor accused of masterminding a vast, criminal scheme to mislead banks and manipulate markets.
