Missing millions now sought from EminiFX CEO’s wife and church couple in crypto Ponzi 

NEW YORK—A civil court judge ruled last Tuesday that EminiFX and CEO Eddy Alexandre are liable for $228 million in restitution to defrauded investors and that Alexandre must turn over $15 million in profits he may have reaped. In a related effort to recover more funds amassed in the $260 million Ponzi scheme Alexandre’s wife and a prominent church couple are also facing accusations of fraud and demands to return funds from the company’s receivership. 

Attorneys for the government-appointed receiver now seek to recover at least $538,000 from Clarelle Dieuveuil, Alexandre’s wife, and $5 million from Pastor John Edvard Maisonneuve and his wife, Sophia Desrosiers Maisonneuve, that never made it into any EminiFX financial accounts. The couple is prominent in the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Haitian worshippers networks, and the pastor currently leads New Eden SDA in Neptune, N.J. 

All three defendants face civil allegations of unjust enrichment and aiding and abetting fraud in a complaint, filed in May. Dieuveuil is also accused of breach of fiduciary duty for her alleged role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Dieuveuil’s attorney denied most of the allegations in court documents, admitting only that she was interim CFO while a permanent one was being sought and that she received a $200,000 payment from the company. 

“Ms. Dieuveuil unequivocally denies the allegations in the complaint and steadfastly maintains that she was not involved in any fraudulent conduct,” her attorney told The Haitian Times via email Saturday.

The Maisonneuves did not have a legal answer on file nor return an email message seeking comment. 

“It looks like they won’t get away with it,” said Will Petion, an Allentown, Penn. investor who claimed the Maisonneuves pressured congregants like him to invest. “He needs to face prison [time] to give up the money.” 

Affinity fraud via SDA Haitian church network

The developments are the latest in a 3-year-old judicial journey that began in May 2022, when the FBI arrested Alexandre at the Valley Stream, N.Y., home he shared with Dieuveuil and their three sons. 

Investigators found that Alexandre—then a deacon at Maranatha French Speaking Seventh Day Adventist Church in Jamaica, Queens—operated the cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investment company as a Ponzi that bilked mostly Haitians of $260 million. He relied on recruiters in the church network, they said, such as the Maisonneuves, and promises of weekly returns of 5% to 9.99% and millionaire status within three years. He also showed fictitious returns on investment and used members’ funds to pay others and reward top performers. 

At first, Alexandre and his supporters vowed he was innocent and said he was targeted for his supposed success. Many refused to believe they were part of an affinity fraud, given its scale and involvement of faith leaders they trusted. He later pled guilty in criminal court and was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023. Several suits have been filed, including one accusing the Seventh-Day Adventist organization of facilitating the affinity fraud.

In her August 19 summary judgment, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni dismissed several arguments Alexandre had filed from prison to avoid civil liability. 

“Alexandre’s own guilty plea in the criminal action [case] establishes his liability in this civil action,” Caproni’s order states. “Simply put, EminiFX was a Ponzi scheme, and investors’ decisions to give their money to Defendants was predicated entirely on fraudulent misrepresentations. Equity, therefore, demands that the money be returned.”

$88 million paid back, but millions in cash still missing

While pursuing this litigation, the receivership says it has distributed about $88 million to more than 22,000 users since last January. Some investors have not yet received distributions, the office says, mainly because there’s no valid payment information for them and about 0.5% of transactions are still in dispute.  

Of the roughly $260 million in contributions EminiFX users made, only $14 million was actively invested—and those suffered losses, the receiver’s complaint states. The bulk of the money was held passively as cryptocurrency, whose value then dropped by tens of millions of dollars.

In all, the receivership claims it is due at least $55,397,380—the amount that EminiFX incurred in losses. It is seeking a judgment in that amount against Dieuveuil and the Maisonneuves, in addition to the $150 million in assets already recovered, for their alleged roles in perpetrating the fraud.

Attorneys painted Dieuveuil as a central player who had “intimate knowledge and control over EminiFX’s operations,” led account management activities such as the online user interface, ensured customers saw the fake ROIs and “credited” their deposits or withdrawals. They contend that she accumulated at least $537,896, including $300,000 from her own account and a separate $200,000 payment from the company.

Also, they said, Dieuveuil allegedly helped Alexandre hire for top management roles such as senior vice president of client relations, senior vice president of business development and chief customer officer.

The Maisonneuves allegedly led client relations. Their roles apparently entailed physically collecting cash from customers to ‘credit’ their accounts when EminiFX’s bank accounts were frozen or shut down. The pastor-first lady pair and others collected more than $6 million this way, but only $1 million made its way into the EminiFX bank accounts turned over to the receiver.

Previously, several congregants told The Haitian Times that the pastor used high-pressure tactics to convince parishioners to join, preached from the pulpit about investing with EminiFX and kept bags of cash inside their home in Reading, Penn. The couple has since moved to Howell, N.J. 

“The whereabouts of the over $5 million in cash are still unknown,” the receivership’s lawyers said. 

“It is not clear whether the Maisonneuves actually handed over all of the cash they collected to Alexandre and/or Dieuveuil or what Alexandre and/or Dieuveuil did with the cash themselves.”

Read more about The Haitian Times special report on how the EminiFx scam unfolded worldwide.