Carmel financial firm’s CEO jailed on alcohol-related charges
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The CEO of Carmel-based retirement planning firm ReJoyce Financial LLC is serving time at the Hamilton County Jail for a probation violation related to charges of driving while intoxicated, but his firm is operating as usual in his absence, according to his attorney and and business associates.
ReJoyce Financial CEO and President Alexander Joyce is also the host of The Retirement Halftime Show, a 30-minute financial infomercial that runs in the Indianapolis market on WTTV CBS-4, WISH-TV 8, WRTV ABC-6, as well as stations in the Terre Haute and Lafayette markets. The show, which is anchored by former WTHR Channel 13 anchor Andrea Morehead, is also available online at yourhometv.com.
Joyce was booked into the Hamilton County Jail on Oct. 11 to serve a 40-day sentence. Including four days of credit for prior time served, and assuming that he earns credit for good behavior while incarcerated, his scheduled release date is Oct. 28.
Indianapolis attorney Frederick Vaiana of Voyles Vaiana Lukemeyer Baldwin & Webb is representing Joyce.
“Like many others, Mr. Joyce battles with the poor choices he made while using alcohol,” Vaiana said in a written statement.
Vaiana also said, “at no point were any of [Joyce’s] clients’ interest compromised by any of his actions or legal proceedings.”
ReJoyce Financial’s marketing director, Steven Hadt, said in a written statement about the matter: “Life lessons contribute to our personal growth. The team at ReJoyce Financial is behind Alex while he works through a difficult personal situation. ReJoyce Financial and its trusted partners remain steadfast in providing support and advice to help members of our community achieve our financial goals.”
Vaiana said Joyce is serving time for violating his probation in a 2021 case in which he pleaded guilty to a felony count of operating a vehicle as a habitual traffic offender. He was originally sentenced to 365 days in Hamilton County Community Corrections, plus a lifetime suspension of his driver’s license.
Court records show that in August 2022, after noncompliance with community corrections, a Hamilton County judge amended his sentence to a 730-day suspended sentence plus 730 days of probation. Joyce was also required to submit to alcohol monitoring during his probation and was prohibited from drinking alcohol.
The alcohol testing that Joyce submitted to as a condition of probation was done via a device that contacts the skin, Vaiana said. The attorney said Joyce admitted to a probation violation after one such test showed a 0.037% transdermal alcohol concentration. Vaiana added that this method of testing can be prone to contamination from “skin moisturizers, body sprays or colognes, or any number of legal substances.”
The 2021 case was not the first time Joyce has faced alcohol-related motor vehicle charges.
In September 2020, Joyce was charged with a felony count of operating a vehicle as a habitual traffic offender, a felony count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person with a prior offense within the past seven years, and a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle while endangering a person. Joyce pleaded guilty to the felonies in January 2021 and the misdemeanor charge was dismissed.
In April 2018, Joyce was charged with criminal misdemeanors in two separate cases—one misdemeanor for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, and one misdemeanor for operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person.
In civil cases that Hadt said are unrelated to Joyce’s personal criminal cases, multiple broadcast companies have also sued ReJoyce Financial in recent years over financial disputes.
In January, the owner of Terre Haute television stations WTWO and WAWV, Nexstar Media Inc., sued ReJoyce over claims that the financial firm had not paid it for services rendered. In March, a Marion Superior Court judge issued a $68,322 judgment against ReJoyce in favor of Nexstar. Court records show that the judgment was satisfied the following month.
Also, in January, the Lafayette TV License Co. LLC, which operates WLFI TV in West Lafayette, filed suit alleging that ReJoyce owed it $20,383. That case, which was filed in Marion Superior Court, was dismissed in April at the plaintiff’s request.
In September 2020, a Marion Superior Court judge issued a $35,093 default judgment against ReJoyce Financial in favor of Iheartmedia and Entertainment Inc. Court records indicate the judgment was paid in full in September 2021. The public docket does not include a copy of Iheartmedia’s original complaint.
Hadt said the cases were related to ReJoyce advertising materials that aired on the plaintiffs’ stations. Hadt said “a bookkeeping oversight” led to the lawsuits—an oversight related to pandemic-related business disruptions.
“We fixed our processes so that doesn’t happen again,” Hadt said. “We have good relationships with all of our media partners right now.”
According to ReJoyce’s web site, Joyce studied financial analytics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and he is a certified estate planner and chartered retirement planning counselor. ReJoyce, founded in 2014, offers retirement, estate and tax planning, and mortgage consultation, among other services.
About 30 employees are listed on the company’s web site.
Editor’s Note: WTWO-TV is a partner of Inside INdiana Business.