(Bloomberg) -- As Archegos Capital Management was cratering in March 2021, it began trying to pull excess cash from trading accounts across Wall Street. At the time, it had about $470 million with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

But instead of withdrawing the money, an Archegos staffer accidentally wired that amount to Goldman, and the bank didn’t immediately give it back. That left Bill Hwang’s family office down nearly $1 billion as it was scrambling to prop up its positions and deal with the massive margin calls that would obliterate it days later.

The previously undisclosed episode emerged during Hwang’s trial on fraud and market manipulation charges. His firm’s collapse ultimately cost counterparties $10 billion. 

Former Archegos risk management chief Scott Becker, one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, described the mistaken wire on the stand under cross-examination by Hwang’s lawyer, Barry Berke.

“It was a very chaotic day,” Berke said while questioning Becker.

Read more: Criminal Case Against Archegos’s Bill Hwang Explained: QuickTake

Becker testified that the Goldman wire was sent by Archegos operations team member Barima Osei on March 24, 2021.

“Archegos had approximately a billion dollars less in its operating account at Bank of America because of this error,” Becker testified. Though Goldman initially indicated it would return the money, a relationship manager at the bank wanted to talk to Archegos head trader William Tomita first. That didn’t happen, Becker said.

Tomita is the prosecution’s other star witness. Both he and Becker have pleaded guilty as part of cooperation deals and are testifying in the hopes of receiving more lenient sentences. 

Becker, who has been on the stand since Monday, has been testifying that he was directed to lie to banks to increase trading capacity and then to buy time on the inevitable margin calls. He has said that Archegos was expecting $13 billion in margin calls on March 25, 2021. It’s unclear if Goldman was included in that estimate.

Mary Mulligan, the lawyer for Hwang’s co-defendant, former Archegos chief financial officer Patrick Halligan, also asked Becker about his dealings with Goldman during her cross-examination. Becker previously testified about his efforts to bring the bank on as an Archegos counterparty in late 2020, saying he and Tomita lied on call in which Goldman “had a lot of questions.”

Becker on Thursday said Halligan told him, “I think Goldman Sachs needs the business. It shouldn’t be a hard sell on your end.”

Another witness who worked with the two testified last week that Becker didn’t get along with Halligan, who was his boss. Mulligan pressed Becker on whether he was unhappy working for Halligan. 

“You didn’t find Mr. Halligan to be an easy boss to work for did you?” Mulligan asked. 

“No, I did not,” Becker replied. He confirmed it was a “running joke” in the operations team to ignore Halligan’s instructions but denied Mulligan’s suggestion that he hid Archegos’ true cash position from Halligan in March 2021. He said any discrepancies were between internal calculations and actual cash levels. 

At the time of the accidental wire to Goldman, Archegos was drawing excess funds from any counterparties it could. Jefferies Financial Group managing director Jennifer Miranda testified last week that the scramble prompted her to call Becker.

“What’s the emergency? Why?” Miranda said she wondered at the time. She said she let Archegos withdraw $240 million after Becker reassured her Archegos had ample cash. 

Goldman was one of the banks able to offload its Archegos holdings relatively quickly, allowing it to emerge unscathed from the debacle. Archegos’ largest counterparty was Credit Suisse Group AG, and its $5.5 billion in losses trading with Hwang contributed to its collapse last year. 

--With assistance from Katherine Burton.

(Updates with details from court Thursday afternoon)

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