MIAMI — A Palm Beach County woman of Haitian descent fraudulently racked up more than $900,000 from 80 investors, most of them Haitians in South Florida, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Suspect Alexandra Robert, 23, used some of the funds to invest in cryptocurrency for herself and to pay for her rent, car and college courses as well as hair and beauty products and cosmetic surgery.
The July 26 SEC complaint alleges that Robert and her two companies — Chalala Academy LLC, based in Boynton Beach, and Lendvesting Academy Corp., based in West Palm Beach — offered “investment programs” with “risk-free” investments of up to 48% returns in 2020 and 2021. The so-called programs were to make loans to small business borrowers who did not qualify through traditional lenders.
On social media, Robert and her companies posted videos in Creole saying they raised more than $4 million from 1,000 investors and paid $2.6 million to investors. In her investment agreement, Robert claimed to provide apps, loan servicing, business consulting, website creation and social media services to the small businesses.
Robert, of Lantana, told investors her companies would pay guaranteed “extremely high” investment returns from underwriting loans to small businesses. However, instead of generating returns, Robert allegedly misappropriated investor funds using them to make distributions to other investors — a ponzi…
