A Former Investment Banker Allegedly Tried To Pay His Child Support By Insider Trading
Frank Perkins Hixon Jr., known as "Perk" - a one-time senior managing director at Evercore Partners - was arrested for insider trading Friday and was also hit with a separate civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange (SEC).
The SEC complaint says Hixon made illegal trades to support a child he had with a woman who's known as Destiny or Nicole Robinson, with whom he had a relationship from 2005 to 2008.
Robinson became pregnant in 2008 and moved to Austin, Texas. About three years later, Hixon Jr. allegedly began making trades through Robinson's and his father's brokerage accounts based on material, nonpublic information he'd received while working at Evercore - a practice known as insider trading.
Text messages show the trades were made in part to support Perkins Jr.'s child with Robinson, according to the SEC. Hixon Jr. allegedly accessed Robinson's account from all over the world, including London and Japan, to realize the trades, which were mostly centered on mining and metal companies.
The allegedly illicit trades were stopped in 2013 after Hixon Jr. was confronted by Evercore about his knowledge of his father's trading. According to the text messages, Robinson then became upset that she'd lost her source of child support. She allegedly even threatened to sue Hixon Jr.
Hixon Jr. allegedly tried to play dumb when Evercore confronted him about the trades. From the complaint:
When Hixon Jr.'s employer asked him in 2013 whether he knew anything about suspicious trading in accounts belonging to Destiny Robinson and his father Frank P. Hixon Sr., who lives in suburban Atlanta, Hixon Jr. denied recognizing either name. When later confronted with information that he did in fact know these individuals, Hixon Jr. continued his false claims, saying he didn't know Robinson as 'Destiny' and asserting in a sworn declaration that when approached he didn't recognize the name of the city where his father lived for more than 25 years.
Evercore reportedly fired Hixon Jr. in January. Hixon Sr. and Robinson have been named relief defendants for the purposes of recovering money from their accounts.