31,000 EminiFX users to receive partial refunds starting February | EXCLUSIVE

NEW YORK— A federal judge has approved plans to return $100 million to about 31,000 EminiFX users who were caught in the cryptocurrency scheme that bilked mostly Haitians out of more than $250 million and sent the company’s founder to prison for nine years. 

Attorney David Castleman, the court-appointed receiver, told The Haitian Times that eligible recipients have until Jan. 31 to provide bank account details so they can receive a portion of the funds they deposited in early February. Most of the recipients, 23,000 users, will receive 45% of the monies they deposited, minus any withdrawals they made before EminiFx was shut down. Another 7,900 people will receive 55%, minus any withdrawals they made.

“The primary purpose of this receivership has always been to recover and distribute the funds back to EminiFx users,” Castleman said Tuesday afternoon. “The announcement of the largest distribution is one of the most significant milestones in the course of this receivership.

“This is the first one, but it might not be the only one,” Castleman added about the distribution.

Key questions are bound to emerge from those who believed they were investing in what EminiFx founder and CEO Eddy Alexandre presented as an opportunity to become millionaires, but was no more than a crypto-fueled pyramid scheme.

Margarette Dominique, the Orlando-area woman who had been desperately waiting for the funds, wondered immediately why they were receiving only 45% to 55% when the Haitian Times alerted her.

“What happened to making the money work, all this time it’s been in the government’s hands,” Dominique said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait for it to come.”

EminiFX Reimbursement details 

The plan authorizes Castleman to use $100 million of the $152 million recovered, roughly 45% of the total estimated transactions, from Alexandre and EminiFx accounts. The other $52 million is being kept in reserve to cover taxes and other obligations, Castleman said. 

Judge Valerie Caproni, who is presiding over the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) case against Alexandre, authorized the reimbursements as follows:

• Use $94.6 million to give 23,643 users who deposited more than $1,000. Those users, called Class 3 in court documents, will receive 45% of the funds as a first payment, with a possibility to receive more if another distribution is approved at a later time.
• Use $2.2 million to give 7,991 users who deposited less than $1,000. Those users, called Class 3A in court documents, will receive 55% of the funds as their only payment.

Of the remaining 4,000 users who filed claims, more than 900 will not receive any money back because they had made withdrawals exceeding the amounts they would otherwise be eligible to get back. Another 600 or so are still under review, and some others did not have any transactions in the accounts the receiver recovered.

For example, someone who deposited $16,000 as an investment and withdrew $3,690.07 would be eligible to receive $3,509.93 [(16000*45%)-3690.07].

Reimbursements are scheduled to take place between Feb. 1and Feb. 5, once users verify their deposit accounts via the worldwide.

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