The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has entered a final civil judgment against Eddy Alexandre and his firm EminiFX Inc., ordering them to pay a combined $288,774,962 for operating a commodity pool Ponzi scheme. Judge Valerie E. Caproni signed the orders on October 8, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the resolution on October 19.
The financial remedies include $228,576,962 in restitution, $15,049,500 in disgorgement assessed solely against Alexandre, and a $45,148,500 civil monetary penalty. Payments toward restitution will be credited against the disgorgement obligation to prevent double recovery, and investor claims hold priority over collection of the government penalty during receivership distributions.
EminiFX began operating in late 2021 and marketed itself as a private investment club providing access to forex and cryptocurrency markets through a tool called the Robo-Advisor Assisted Account, or RA3. The scheme raised more than $262 million from over 25,000 participants by promising guaranteed weekly returns of 5% to 9.99%. In reality, EminiFX posted net trading losses exceeding $49 million, and Alexandre misappropriated at least $15 million into personal accounts and investments. The court found that new investor deposits were used to pay withdrawals to earlier participants, matching the classic Ponzi structure.
As of July 2026, the court-appointed receiver had returned just over $98 million to more than 28,000 investors — approximately 37% of the more than $262 million in contributions. The CFTC cautioned that monetary restitution orders do not guarantee full recovery because wrongdoers may lack sufficient assets. The receiver continues to distribute recovered funds, and the civil case remains open.
Separate from the civil matter, Alexandre pleaded guilty to commodities fraud in a parallel criminal prosecution. He is serving a nine-year federal prison sentence and was ordered to pay $213 million in criminal forfeiture. The civil injunction permanently bars Alexandre and EminiFX from trading in CFTC-regulated markets, soliciting or accepting funds for commodity interests, managing third-party accounts, and applying for CFTC registration.
Judge Caproni also rejected Alexandre’s jurisdictional challenge, writing that the CFTC’s authority to bring enforcement claims regarding spot cryptocurrency transactions is “not seriously in question.” That language reinforces a line of cases treating the agency as having authority over spot-market crypto fraud while broader market-structure rulemaking remains pending.
