A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered Eddy Alexandre, founder of the shuttered cryptocurrency platform EminiFX Inc., to pay more than $228 million in restitution after finding that the company operated as a Ponzi scheme. The ruling, handed down on 20 Aug., resolves a civil enforcement action brought by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and follows Alexandre’s earlier nine-year criminal sentence for commodities fraud. U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni determined that Alexandre misled thousands of investors with promises of high returns from automated crypto trading and diverted client funds for personal use, including the purchase of luxury cars. In addition to restitution, the court ordered disgorgement of roughly $15 million in ill-gotten gains, underscoring regulators’ willingness to pursue significant financial penalties alongside criminal sanctions in the digital-asset sector. Separately, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon lifted a freeze on $57.6 million in USD Coin tied to the Libra memecoin, giving promoters Hayden Davis of Kelsier Labs and Ben Chow of Meteora renewed access to the funds. The judge cited the defendants’ cooperation and questioned the plaintiffs’ likelihood of success, illustrating the varied outcomes emerging from a wave of crypto-related litigation in New York federal courts.