The authorities in the United States have charged Eddy Alexandre with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses for his activities with the cryptocurrency and forex trading platform, EminiFX.
Announced on Thursday, Alexandre headed the trading platform and allegedly solicited more than $59 million in investments from hundreds of individual investors. He made false representations about the trading platform and lured investors with bogus promises.
Another 'Too Good to Be True' Scheme
According to the complaint, Alexandre started operations of EminiFX in September 2021 and continued until this month. He marketed it as a platform where investors can earn solid passive income with automated forex and crypto trading.
He promised around 5 percent as a weekly return that would double their investments in only five years. He claimed that that platform is using some new 'secret' technology for trading automation.
“In reality, no such technology existed,” said Damian Williams, the US Attorney.
The authorities found that Alexandre did not even invest the entire capital amount from the investors for trading. He even sustained a loss of more than $6 million on the limited portion of funds that he did invest.
Alexandre did not disclose any of the losses to his investors. Rather, he published false reports showing at least a 5 percent weekly return from the investments. He even promised the investors that they could withdraw or re-invest the funds.
But, his misdeeds did not stop there. He misdirected at least $14.7 million of the investors’ capital to his personal account and even used the funds to purchase a luxury car.
“As in any of the financial markets, the foreign exchanges offer high return potential, but investors should beware of the downside risks of false claims and get rich quick schemes that oftentimes are too good to be true,” Williams added.
The US authorities charged Alexandre with one count of commodities fraud and one count of wire fraud. The first one carries a maximum prison time of ten years, while the other 20 years. He was arrested on Thursday morning.
