SEC Says Start-Up Is Not a Piggy Bank

DETROIT (CN) - The founder of Onyx Capital Advisors and a cohort stole $3 million from three Detroit area pension funds, the SEC claims in Federal Court. Roy Dixon Jr. took the money to cover overdrafts on his own bank accounts, with help from his buddy, Michael A. Farr, who controls three companies in which Onyx had invested millions of dollars the SEC said.

Dixon collected $23.8 million from three pension funds for a start-up private equity fund he said would invest in small and medium size companies, according to the SEC. It claims Dixon withdrew the pension funds' money from the private equity fund, and that Farr diverted money to a company he owned and gave it to Dixon, while keeping some for himself. Farr also sent money to contractors who were building a "multimillion-dollar house for Dixon," the SEC said.

The agency charged both men, and Onyx, with securities violations and aiding and abetting.

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