On Friday (Feb. 10), the U.S. Justice Department announced that Eddy Alexandre, the CEO of cryptocurrency and foreign exchange trading platform EminiFX, has pleaded guilty to running a fraud scheme against tens of thousands of investors and agreed to forfeit $248.8 million and pay unspecified damages.

Eddie Alexander, 51, of Valley Stream, N.Y., was arrested in May 2022 and charged with wire fraud and merchandise fraud. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but changed his plea at a new hearing on Friday afternoon.

From around September 2021 to May 2022, Alexander reportedly ran cryptocurrency and forex trading platform EminiFX and "raised over $248 million in investments from tens of thousands of individual investors."

He claims that EminiFX can provide "at least a 5% weekly return," touting EminiFX as a passive income platform that uses a secret new technology to automate cryptocurrency and foreign currency transactions, thus "guaranteeing" a prescribed return on investment, while refusing to explain to investors what the technology is.

He even promised that investors would double their money within five months.

But in reality, the "majority" of the investor's money was not invested, and Alexander "used some of the money for personal use."

In fact, Alexander lost millions of dollars on the fund's investments, he also deposited about $14.7 million into his personal bank account, and used about $155,000 to buy a BMW, as well as make a partial payment on a Mercedes Benz.

Prosecutors said Alexander will appear before a judge for final sentencing on July 12. Merchandise fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.