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.