A New York man was arrested Thursday morning and charged for his role in an alleged crypto investment scheme that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claims defrauded investors out of $59 million.
Eddy Alexandre, 50, of Valley Stream, NY, is the CEO of EminiFX, a cryptocurrency and forex trading platform. Authorities allege that Alexandre founded and ran EminiFX since last September, convincing "hundreds of individual investors" to invest with him.
According to Alexandre's social media profiles, he is a cybersecurity engineer with nearly 30 years of experience, most recently as a senior IT professional at WarnerMedia.
According to the criminal complaint, Alexandre told investors he could double their money in five months and promised weekly returns of 5%, which he allegedly achieved through a secretive robo-advertising technology.
Authorities allege Alexandre failed to invest the "vast majority of investor funds entrusted to him [and] suffered losses on the limited portion of funds he did invest."
He is accused of spending approximately $15 million of the investor funds on personal expenses, depositing money into his personal bank accounts, and spending approximately $170,000 on the purchase of luxury vehicles.
According to the FBI, investors were led to believe that their accounts would grow by 5-10% each week with fake account statements provided on EminiFX's website. Authorities say Alexandre told nervous investors that his company had "experienced traders" investing on behalf of clients, but never told them exactly what they were investing in.
Alexandre also spent client money on business expenses, including renting an office, hosting a gala and hiring lawyers, the complaint says. He allegedly used the office and other promotional events to find new investors, as well as a multi-level marketing-style recruiting model.
Alexandre was charged with one count each of commodity fraud and wire fraud. The charges carry maximum sentences of 10 and 20 years in prison, respectively.