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The Department of Justice has obtained a stay of the CFTC’s civil EminiFX fraud proceedings.
On July 25th, the DOJ filed to stay the CFTC’s EminiFX complaint.
Although the DOJ must still petition for a stay in each individual instance, civil regulatory actions are routinely delayed awaiting the conclusion of related criminal prosecutions.
The fundamental purpose for this is to prevent defendants from exploiting civil discovery to dodge criminal procedure standards.
To that purpose, EminiFX owner and defendant Eddy Alexandre filed an objection to the stay, contending that civil discovery other than depositions should be allowed.
On September 6th, the court approved the DOJ’s stay application. This halts both the CFTC’s complaint and the appointment of EminiFX Receivership.
Both requests are granted, and all discovery in this matter is stayed.
The criminal case against Defendant Alexandre is set to be heard on March 27, 2023, according to the Government.
Thus, this stay is for a short time and will not disadvantage any of the parties in the civil matter; if there is any prejudice, it is offset by judicial efficiency reasons.
Alexandre’s EminiFX criminal prosecution might be pushed back into the future. Unfortunately, this has been a pattern in MLM criminal prosecutions in recent years (OneCoin is perhaps the best example of this).
If Alexandre’s EminiFX criminal trial is postponed until March 2023, he will be able to seek for a discovery stay. This command comes with the caveat that Alexandre is not to blame for the trial delay.
On December 1st, the DOJ has been asked to furnish the court with an update on the status of criminal proceedings.
There’s also a little update on Christopher and Maureen Beil’s quest to secure the $535,000 deposit Alexandre paid them.
Alexandre was supposed to be sold a house by the Beils. Alexandre made the deposit with fraudulent EminiFX investor monies, which the Receiver was able to recover.
The Beils attempted to force the EminiFX Receivership into arbitration after being denied special treatment by the court on two separate occasions.
While sympathizing with “the Beils’ position,” the judge barred their arbitration suit from progressing on September 2nd.
Once a claim mechanism has been established, the Beils will be able to file a claim with the EminiFX Receiver. There is currently no timetable for this procedure.
