An Atlanta man was named in a federal indictment, unsealed Friday, alleging he embezzled more than $3 million from Detroit and Pontiac, Mich., pension funds.
Federal prosecutors accused Roy Dixon of conspiring with former City of Detroit treasurer Jeffrey Beasley to bilk money from Detroit’s police and firefighter pension, Detroit’s city employee pension fund and the City of Pontiac’s employee pension.
Dixon is charged with bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, and illegally structuring financial transactions in the 13-count indictment. He is likely to be arraigned next week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said.
As part of the scheme, Dixon is accused of submitting a forged letter to the Pontiac pension board to convince its trustees to release more than $500,000 from their fund that he used to help pay for building his $8 million Buckhead home, authorities said.
He could not be reached for comment Wednesday after calls to his Atlanta home and his home in Plymouth, Mich., a Detroit suburb.
According to the indictment, from January 2006 to September 2008, federal officials claim Dixon paid bribes and kickbacks to Beasley and other city officials working with former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and other individuals to secure money from each of the pension funds to invest through his company, Onyx Capital Advisers.
Kilpatrick was mayor from 2002 to September 2008, when he resigned under allegations of corruption, including pending federal accusations of extortion, bribery and fraud.
Dixon convinced each of the pension funds to allow his company to invest $25 million, and the funds subsequently suffered a combined loss of $23.8 million.
Beasley and other unnamed co-conspirators allegedly demanded, accepted and received bribes and kickbacks from Dixon, including travel, meals, golf clubs, drinks, gambling money, hotel stays, Las Vegas concert tickets, airline tickets, massages and cash – more than $100,000 from Dixon and others doing business with the pension funds, authorities said.
Dixon also bribed Beasley with a trip to Turks and Caicos Islands to secure some of Beasley’s services in the scheme, prosecutors allege, and he bribed Kilpatrick’s aide with $15,000 cash in exchange for support for a real estate investment in the tropical location.
Dixon could spend up to 20 years in prison and pay up to $250,000 in fines if he is convicted. The indictment also seeks to force him to forfeit $3 million of his own personal wealth.
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