A federal judge in New York rejected RICO claims underpinning a class-action lawsuit against a pastor and alleged associates on Thursday, finding that investors in what authorities have called a crypto Ponzi scheme could not move forward with efforts to pursue damages.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams found that a provision included in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 was grounds for tossing out the lawsuit because its claims were formed on “predicate acts of securities fraud” that weren’t actionable. In civil matters, RICO allows people to sue parties involved in racketeering activity like fraud or extortion.
However, Abrams noted that the people who say they were bilked out of money by a pastor affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church have 30 days to file an amended complaint.
The lawsuit, brought in May, sought at least $750 million in damages in connection to losses that investors sustained in connection to a scheme crafted by EminiFX founder and former CEO Eddy Alexandre, who pleaded guilty to commodities fraud in 2023.
EminiFX billed itself as a trading platform for digital assets and foreign currencies. Prosecutors said that Alexandre raised $248 million from more than 25,000 people, promising that the platform could “double their money within five months” through secret technology.
Prosecutors said that Alexandre didn’t invest a substantial portion of the funds he raised from members of his church and the Haitian community, while also failing to disclose millions of dollars in losses on allocations that he did make before his arrest nearly four years ago.
What’s more, authorities said that Alexandre diverted $14.7 million in investor funds to his personal bank account. He later purchased a $155,000 BMW, they said.
At the time of Alexandre’s sentencing, the pastor was ordered to forfeit $248.9 million and pay $213 million in restitution. According to the Bureau of Prisons’ website, he is currently being held at a low-security correctional institution in Pennsylvania.
Last year, a different federal judge in New York ordered Alexandre and his company to pay nearly $229 million in connection to an enforcement action brought by the CFTC. Alexandre represented himself in the case.
Religious figures allegedly abusing positions of trust isn’t unheard of when it comes to crypto. In September, a Colorado judge found that pastor Eli Regalado violated securities laws while raising money for a failed crypto project that god supposedly told him to create.