A disgrace Manhattan investment banker who admitted to insider trading is asking a judge to sentence him to a short prison term because he committed his fraud not out of greed — but for love.
Frank “Perk” Hixon Jr. is facing up to 4³/₄ years behind bars when sentenced in federal court Friday morning, but he is pleading for leniency because, the married millionaire claims, he tipped his Texas girlfriend to upcoming deals only so she could earn enough money to support their love child.
And that, his lawyer claims in court papers, is not nearly as evil as the insider trading crimes of hedge fund traders — who did their crimes solely to get rich.
Hixon’s love-fueled frauds “pale in comparison to the pervasive, calculated and economically-driven conduct of defendants such as Raj Rajaratnam,” the lawyer wrote in a letter to Judge Ronnie Abrams.
The opera-loving Hixon, who met his high-society wife, Marguerite Lammot Lee, when they were both at Harvard Business School, claims his baby momma, Destiny Robinson, is too proud to accept child support checks — but the 37-year old was more than willing to receive investment advice.
So Hixon, 55, a former managing director at Evercore Partners, opened up a brokerage account in her name and used inside information on deals he was working from 2011-2013 to profitably trade in those stocks to fatten up the account.There was nearly $1 million in profits in the account.
Hixon’s love child was born in 2008.
Despite the affair, Hixon’s wife appears to be standing by her man.
“I know that Perk deeply regrets the actions that have brought him before you, and that he is embarked on the hard work necessary to rectify them,” Marguerite wrote in a July 17 letter to Judge Abrams.
Marguerite said the two are working to repair their 26-year old marriage.
“Without him here, we cannot heal,” she wrote.
US Attorney Preet Bharara is not buying Hixon’s tale.
Prosecutors have asked Judge Abrams to sentence Hixon to 46-to-57 months in prison, in line with the sentencing guidelines.
“Hixon’s arguments that his crimes warrant a lower sentence because they were a fleeting aberration motivated by love and fear, and that his lies to the FBI were “reflexive,” are unsupported — indeed, contradicted — by the facts,” he claims in court papers.
Hixon, when confronted by FBI agents investigating the crime, lied about the account, the insider trading and about a second account the investment banker set up for his father.
The dad’s brokerage account also benefited from insider information.
Hixon also pleaded guilty in April to lying to the FBI.
“If anything, in view of the sustained character of his fraud, the calculated, repeated abuses of trust it involved, and Hixon’s likewise calculated lies designed to try to conceal his crimes, Hixon’s conduct places him at the more culpable end of the spectrum,” Bharara said in court papers.
Hixon, with homes in New York and Rhode Island, used illegal inside information from 2010-2013 to trade shares through accounts of Robinson and his father, Frank Sr., to pocket nearly $1 million in illicit profits.
He has been fired from Evercore.