Disgraced New York investment banker Perk Hixon on Wednesday pleaded guilty to insider trading — becoming the 80th Wall Street high-flier to crash due to Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s years-long crackdown.
Hixon, his 6-foot-4 frame tucked trimly into a gray suit as the court hearing started, faces 46 months to 57 months in prison under the plea agreement hammered out with Bharara, whose record is now 80-0.
The banker must also pay a $710,000 fine.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 1.
The 55-year-old former executive with Evercore Group used illegal inside information from 2010-2013 to trade shares through accounts of Destiny Robinson, his 36-year-old former girlfriend, and his father, Frank Sr., to pocket nearly $1 million in illicit profits, prosecutors charged in a Feb. 21 complaint.
Frank Perkins Hixon, Jr., known as Perk, allegedly used some of the illegal cash to pay child support to Robinson, the mother of his 5-year-old daughter, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a separate civil suit.
Jovial before the hearing in Manhattan federal court began, Hixon, the former senior managing director in Evercore’s mining and metal unit, quickly became somber as he prepared to plead guilty to six counts of fraud, including one of lying to FBI agents probing the case.
“Is your mind clear?” Judge Ronnie Abrams asked.
“Yes it is.”
“Did you know it was illegal when you committed these acts?” the judge continued.
“Yes, your honor.”
Hixon then read from prepared remarks, admitting that he accessed brokerage accounts and made trades based on information gleaned from working on takeovers as an investment banker.
The disgraceful end to a once glorious and powerful career played out in the cavernous ceremonial courtroom that can seat scores of observers but this day was nearly empty save for a handful of reporters on one side and just two people behind the defense table.
Hixon, it seemed, was going down alone, as no family members appeared to be in attendance.
Most of Bharara’s previous insider-trading convictions involved hedge-fund traders, portfolio managers, analysts or their expert networking contacts.
Hixon is likely the first investment banker snared in the probe.
As he left the downtown Manhattan courthouse, Hixon walked down the stone steps with a noticeable limp, bent his big frame into a waiting black car and was gone.