The Long Island, New York, man who admitted swindling hundreds of millions of dollars from investors through his EminiFX cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange platform was sentenced to nine years in prison.
(Bloomberg) — The Long Island, New York, man who admitted swindling hundreds of millions of dollars from investors through his EminiFX cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange platform was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Eddy Alexandre, who lives in Valley Stream, was sentenced Tuesday by US District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan. Alexandre pleaded guilty in February to commodities fraud and agreed to forfeit $248.8 million he earned illegally through his Ponzi scheme targeting mostly investors in the Haitian-American community in New York.
“This was a calculated, planned and ongoing fraud,” Cronan said. “And the reach of the fraud was vast.”
The scheme played out over just eight months, from September 2021 until May 2022. Alexandre, a native of Haiti, promised investors returns of 5% or more each week on their investments. The fraud grew quickly to 25,000 victims, with Alexandre running his EminiFX Inc. as a multilevel marketing scam, which rewarded existing investors for bringing in new investors.
Prosecutors said Alexandre held a position of trust in his church and in his community, which he exploited to take money from poor and hard-working victims.
Community Support
Since his arrest, Alexandre has received support from the Haitian-American community, with many showing up to his court appearances to protest the charges.
During Tuesday’s sentencing, dozens of supporters filled Cronan’s courtroom and an overflow courtroom. Most wore identical lime green t-shirts printed with his picture, the EminiFX logo and the words “Together We Rise,” “Break the Chains” and “Justice for All.”
Two victims addressed the court, telling of losing the money with Alexandre and advocating for a stiff sentence.
“Do you have a heart, Mr. Alexandre?” asked Phucien Baptiste, a nurse who said he’d lost $25,000 he’d been saving for a down payment on a house.
A few supporters praised Alexandre for giving them hope.
Alexandre lost $6 million trading on the funds he got from investors and sent more than $14 million to his personal bank account — using $155,000 to buy a BMW and another portion for $13,000 in car payments to Mercedes Benz, the government said.
Prosecutors had asked Cronan to sentence Alexander to 10 years, the maximum available under his guilty plea deal with the government. Alexandre asked for leniency without specifying a particular sentence.
When Cronan imposed the nine-year sentence, his supporters looked glum, many lowering their heads. One woman used an extra t-shirt to dab at a tear.
The case is US v. Alexandre, 22-cr-326, US District Court, Southern District of New York.
(Adds details of fraud, comments from court hearing.)
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