October 22, 2014
Fraud
Bixby Energy Systems CEO Robert Allen Walker was recently convicted by a Minnesota federal court of fraud. He was ordered to pay back $58 million in restitution and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Walker was accused by federal prosecutors of recruiting investors to submit large amounts of money to Bixby. From 2001 to 2011, Walker raised more than $43 million from 1,800 investors by promising a share in company securities. Walker lied to investors about the salary payments to Bixby officers and directors. For example, Walker told an investor that officers would not be paid for selling company securities. Then, he paid a company officer $3.6 million with a $600,000 kickback.
In December 2011, Walker admitted to defrauding clients for as much as $7 million. In March, the jury found Walker guilty on all 17 counts: four counts of mail fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of witness tampering, and three counts of tax evasion. Another Bixby executive, Dennis Desender, was sentenced to eighty years in prison on one count of tax evasion and one count of securities fraud.