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Eddy Alexandre, the founder and CEO of EminiFX, was detained on May 12th. The operation was a cooperative effort by the DOJ and the CFTC.
An FBI sting that began in or around March 2022 was a part of the operation. In this post, we look at how the FBI apprehended Alexandre and what happened after he was arrested.
Eddy Alexandre, a Haitian native, founded EminiFX in September 2021 in New York. Alexandre started EminiFX shortly after, from a New York office. The FBI began monitoring Alexandre in New York after the DOJ and the CFTC launched a joint investigation. This surveillance resulted in the gathering of evidence that Alexandre merely cooked up the weekly ROI paid to EminiFX investors.
On March 22nd, a whiteboard was captured on video surveillance in EminiFX’s office: Alexandre recorded the daily ROI paid to EminiFX investors on the whiteboard. A note to the right says, “NEVER LESS THAN 5%, NEVER MORE THAN 9.99 percent!” Alexandre set up the weekly ROI rate rather than being related to trading. He kept track of the rate on his workplace whiteboard, making sure it was constantly between 5% and 9.99 percent.
Witness interviews, attendance at weekly investor webinars, and social media surveillance, including YouTube, were among the other measures utilized by the FBI to investigate EminiFX. Certain EminiFX investors have released publicly available films in which they log in to their EminiFX account on the Website and exhibit the EminiFX investor “Dashboard,” according to the sealed complaint that resulted in Alexandre’s arrest warrant.
For example, according to a publicly available video posted on a social media platform, EminiFX’s “weekly profit” for a specific week was recorded on the website as 9.94 percent.
EminiFX’s deceptive business operations were documented with a snapshot of the video.
EminiFX had around $35 million in its account as of May 4th. On April 22nd, the FBI mentioned this in a webinar. Alexandre falsely claimed that in-person activities held in his New York office “laid to rest many of the worries” investors had about whether the EminiFX address was bogus and whether the office even existed.
These questions were regarded by Alexandre as “a lot of crap.” Alexander also stated that within a few days following the EminiFX office event on Sunday, EminiFX investors, including previous investors, invested over ten percent more cash, bringing the total amount of EminiFX investors’ funds to over $114 million.
Alexandre’s invested funds were capped at $59 million after an examination of his EminiFX accounts. EminiFX has “a balance of over $35,000,000” as of May 4th.
Based on the bank account activity, which demonstrates that Alexandre failed to invest the majority of investor funds, it appears that EminiFX’s only option for funding investor withdrawals is to use existing or new investor funds in a Ponzi-like approach.
Alexandre was taken into custody on May 12th. Later that day, he was brought before the court. Looking ahead Access to Edd Alexandre’s criminal case docket appears to be blocked due to administrative concerns.
I expect these issues to be rectified by Monday, at which point I’ll be able to provide an update. Alexandre was released on bail at his May 12th court appearance, according to Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press.
The Department of Justice is concerned that Alexandre will flee to Haiti. If Alexandre flees, Haiti will not extradite him to the United States. Alexandre was released on a $3 million bond after the court dismissed these concerns.
He is being held in self-funded house detention, which he is not allowed to pay for with cryptocurrency.
André sat at the defense table after the hearing ended, conversing into his Federal Defender’s mobile phone (to his wife), until the marshals put him in handcuffs and carried him away.
Keep an eye out for an update on Alexandre’s criminal case next week.
