A former managing director at Archegos Capital has filed a lawsuit alleging he and other employees were coerced into funding a Christian nonprofit organization connected with the firm using money they had been given as bonuses. 

Archegos employee Brendan Sullivan alleges in the lawsuit that Sung Kook (“Bill”) Hwang, founder of Archegos and the affiliated Grace and Mercy Fund, recklessly mismanaged the money in the so-called deferred compensation fund and lied to cover up his actions.

Hwang was arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud April 27. He is currently free on a $100 million bond and awaiting trial. According to a former manager at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and additional reporting by The Roys Report, Hwang was a deep-pocketed donor to the now disgraced nonprofit group.

Ruth Malhotra, former public relations manager at RZIM, disclosed the group’s connection to Hwang in late April. “When Ravi Zacharias filed a RICO lawsuit against Lori Anne Thompson whom he sexually abused, Ravi said he had a ‘donor with deep pockets who’ll fund it as long as it takes to silence the Thompsons’,” Malhotra tweeted. “That donor was Bill Hwang, who was just arrested by DOJ for fraud and racketeering.”

The suit says Archegos forced employees to give back bonus money and invested it in stocks that it transferred to Grace and Mercy. The foundation then allegedly sold the stocks for a profit, avoiding taxation while at the same time providing tax deductions for Archegos.

The employee fund ultimately lost a total of $500 million, the suit says. Sullivan says he is owed $30 million in deferred compensation, the alleged value of the $3.8 million he put into the fund based on Archegos’ inflated value shortly before its demise. 

Law firm Brown Rudnick filed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit July 5 in New York Southern District Court. Hwang, Archegos, Grace and Mercy, and several of Hwang’s associates are named as defendants in the suit. 

The filing also alleges that billionaire Hwang and the other executives named as defendants “transformed the business into a personality cult where loyalty to Hwang, not performance, was paramount and where questioning and dissent were not tolerated.” 

“So-called ‘good followers’ who demonstrated agreement with whatever Hwang said or wanted were openly praised and rewarded; those who offered honest assessments or questioned actions or policies received personal abuse, lower compensation, and adverse professional treatment,” it says.  

Sullivan alleges Hwang used Christianity to pressure employees to invest their earnings, and that they were questioned about their faith and pressured to go to Scripture readings.

Before Archegos’ implosion, Grace and Mercy Foundation donated more than $80 million to ministries including International Justice Mission, Luis Palau Association, Prison Fellowship, The King’s College, Young Life, the Navigators, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Cru, Youth for Christ, Focus on the Family, and Fuller Seminary, and Hwang was hailed as part of a “new evangelical donor-class.” 

As previously reported in The Roys Report, Hwang was a major donor to RZIM. In 2017, Hwang’s Grace and Mercy Foundation gave more than $1 million to RZIM. The foundation gave $255,000 in 2018 to the now scandal-plagued ministry.

Christopher Porrino, a lawyer for the Grace and Mercy Foundation, told Christianity Today that “Mr. Sullivan’s complaint against The Grace and Mercy Foundation is filled with baseless and frivolous allegations, all of which will be decisively refuted in court.” 

Josh Shepherd contributed to this report. This story originally appeared at MinistryWatch.

Anne Stych is a freelance writer, copy editor, proofreader and content manager covering science, technology, retail, and nonprofits. She writes for American City Business Journals’ BizWomen and MinistryWatch.