EminiFX founder Eddy Alexandre has pled guilty to one count of commodities fraud.
Alexandre’s guilty plea includes $248.8 million forfeiture judgment.
Alexandre signalled to the court he intended to change his plea in a February 8th filed Memorandum.
The court held a Change of Plea hearing on February 10th, at which Alexandre changed his June 2022 not guilty plea.
Alexandre was originally indicted in early 2022 on one count of commodities fraud and one count of wire fraud. The wire fraud count has been dropped as per Alexandre’s plea deal.
Alexandre has also consented to a $248,829,276.73 money judgment,
representing the amount of proceeds traceable to the offense charged in Count One of the Indictment that the Defendant personally obtained.
The amount is a vast increase from the $59 million the DOJ identified at the time of Alexandre’s May 2022 arrest.
And on on top of the $248 million forfeiture judgment, additional restitution is to be determined at Alexandre’s sentencing.
Speaking on Alexandre’s guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated;
Eddy Alexandre admitted today to luring investors to his cryptocurrency investment scam by fabricating weekly returns of at least 5%.
In reality, Alexandre failed to invest a substantial portion of this investors’ money and even used some funds for personal purchases.
Alexandre’s scam caused investors to lose millions of dollars, and this case should serve as yet another warning to cryptocurrency executives that the Southern District of New York is closely watching and ready to prosecute any and all misconduct in the crypto markets.
The DOJ’s press-release additionally notes;
In truth and in fact, and as ALEXANDRE well knew, EminiFX did not earn 5% weekly returns for its investors.
ALEXANDRE did not even invest a substantial portion of the investor funds entrusted to him, and ALEXANDRE sustained millions of dollars in losses on the limited portion of funds that he did invest, which he did not disclose to his investors.
Instead of using investors’ funds as he had promised, ALEXANDRE also misdirected at least approximately $14,700,000 to his personal bank account.
For example, ALEXANDRE used $155,000 in investor funds to purchase a BMW car for himself and spent an additional $13,000 of investor funds on car payments, including to Mercedes Benz.
The CFTC filed paralell civil commodities fraud proceedings against Alexandre. The CFTC’s case was stayed in September 2022, pending the outcome of his criminal case.
It’s likely Alexandre will be quick to settle with the CFTC once the case is reopened.
On the count of commodities fraud, Alexandre is facing up to ten years in prison. Alexandre’s sentencing has been scheduled for July 12th.
BehindMLM correctly identified EminiFX as a Ponzi scheme in March 2022.
