A federal judge has ruled that Eddy Alexandre and his company, EminiFX, must return $228.5 million to people who lost money in his scheme.
The order came on August 19 from Judge Valerie Caproni, who sided with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in its civil case.
This judgment follows Alexandre’s earlier criminal sentence of nine years in prison, handed down in July. Although he represented himself and tried to oppose the CFTC’s request, he offered no evidence that challenged the fraud claims.
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The court also noted that since Alexandre had already pleaded guilty in the criminal case, he could not argue against the same findings in this civil action.
The CFTC’s calculation of restitution was based on investor deposits minus withdrawals. In addition, Judge Caproni ordered $15 million in disgorgement, which will be credited so investors are not double-counted. More than 25,000 people were affected, with total losses above $248 million.
Alexandre first faced charges three years ago, when prosecutors accused him of raising $59 million from early investors through false promises. US Attorney Damian Williams described his conduct as “brazen”.
EminiFX was active from September 2021 to May 2022. It was promoted as an automated platform for cryptocurrency and foreign exchange trading. Alexandre promised weekly profits of 5% to 9.99%, supposedly generated by a system he called “Robo-Advisor Assisted Account (RA3)”.
In a letter written before his criminal sentencing, Alexandre admitted:
The weekly figures he provided were not based on investment returns.
Recently, a New York federal court sentenced Charles O. Parks III to one year and one day in prison. What happened? Read the full story.
