WIKIFX REPORT: Immigrants snared ina crypto Ponzi scheme

Faithfully, by 2:30 a.m. on Fridays, Frantz Victorin said he received at least a 5% return from EminiFX, an online investment platform that said people could get rich investing in cryptocurrency and the foreign exchange markets, also known as forex.

EminiFX chief executive Eddy Alexandre, a fellow Haitian native living in New York, would explain that investors could withdraw their profits and use the money to pay their mortgage, car note or other bills. Or, they could reinvest the returns, Victorin said.

“Everybody got paid,” Victorin said. “They got their profit in their e-wallet.”

Alexandre, who is also the founder, president and sole owner of EminiFX, was charged in connection with running a Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.

The profits people believe they were making were not real, the complaint said. But to this community of family, friends and fellow church members, Alexandre was like a shepherd leading a flock to what they hoped would be life-changing fortunes.

The weekly returns were so big and consistent, a minimum of 5% and sometimes almost 10%, that Victorin projected he would become a millionaire after a little less than a year of investing with EminiFX.

“I took out at least four loans from different banks to make sure the dream he was talking about, as a family, we were ready,” Victorin said.

He still has faith in Alexandre. “We believe in this guy,” Victorin said. “We believe in our CEO. He is a good guy, a great guy.”

Like so many other investors, Victorin, who lives in Massachusetts, attended Thursday night Zoommeetings, where he said Alexandre talked about being a part of a system where people could make their money work for them instead of them working for money.

“EminiFX is your sure path to financial freedom,” the company website promised.

It was an appealing pitch that brought in millions of dollars from thousands of investors in the United States and abroad.

The FBI says the purported proprietary trading platform used by EminiFX was a fraud and Alexandre was operating a cryptocurrency and foreign exchange Ponzi-like scheme that collected more than $59 million starting in September 2021 until he was taken into custody by the FBI in May.

The Justice Department complaint alleges the platform only invested a relatively small percentage of investor funds and misdirected around $14.7 million to his personal bank account.

“Each week EminiFX's website falsely represented to investors that they had earned at least 5 percent on their investment, which they could withdraw or reinvest,” the federal complaint said. “Alexandre stated that if an investor invested $100,000, they would be a millionaire within two to three years.”

Alexandre has been charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses. Emil Bove, an attorney for Alexandre, did not respond to requests for comment. Alexandre entered a plea of not guilty, according to the Justice Department.

Although the investigation is in its very early stages, a federal official said they had “not yet identified an account of EminiFX that contains revenue from an underlying business operation or any legitimate business activity that requires the ongoing use of the business premises or employees.”

Even after explaining this to some EminiFX investors, they stood steadfast in their belief that Alexandre will be cleared of all charges.

I believe that they believe. They cling to their trust in Alexandre because the alternative, that they may have been duped, is unthinkable.

Alexandre was like a shepherd leading a flock to what they hoped would be lifechanging fortunes.