New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking a court to order NovaTech founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion to pay about $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement after a default judgment was entered against them. In a separate case, four promoters have agreed to pay nearly $6 million for victims’ benefit and are permanently barred from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries.
- New York’s $1.3 billion request is not a final award.
- The four promoter settlements total $5, 975, 861.
- The state says more than 11, 000 New Yorkers invested in NovaTech and AWS Mining.
- Incomplete records leave the full victim count and losses uncertain.
Two separate enforcement tracks
The New York Attorney General’s Office announced settlements with four promoters on October 22, 2026. Martin Zizi agreed to pay $2.9 million, Frantz Ciceron $2.05 million, James Corbett $750, 000 and Ricardo Roy Sr. $275, 861. The total comes to $5, 975, 861.
All four are permanently barred from participating in the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries. The state says the payments are meant to benefit victims. Its announcement does not say whether all the money has been collected or explain when and how it will be distributed.
The case against the Petions is at a different stage. In August 2025, a court entered a default judgment against the founders and related companies after they failed to respond to the state’s lawsuit. The judgment restricted their participation in cryptocurrency and securities businesses, but left the amount of financial relief to be decided in a later proceeding.
In an inquest filing on October 22, 2026, James asked the court to order the Petions to pay about $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement. Disgorgement is a remedy meant to recover money obtained through alleged misconduct. The court has not made a final award, and the filing does not mean the state has collected the money.
More than $1 billion deposited, less than $26 million traded
NovaTech promoted cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange trading packages that supposedly earned weekly profits of 2% to 4%, along with recruitment bonuses. These were promotional claims, not verified investment returns.
According to the New York Attorney General’s Office, investors deposited more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency with NovaTech between August 2019 and April 2023. Less than $26 million was traded on the company’s platform. NovaTech collapsed in May 2023, leaving tens of thousands of investors unable to withdraw their cryptocurrency, the office says.
The gap raises obvious questions, but it does not show what happened to every dollar that wasn’t traded on the platform. The state says missing investor records and financial accounts have made it difficult to reconcile transactions, identify every victim and calculate total losses.
The attorney general alleges that NovaTech operated an illegal pyramid scheme and misled investors about its trading. Recruitment bonuses featured in the company’s pitch, but promised returns and promotional materials are no substitute for independently verifiable trading records. When a business advertises unusually high, steady profits, investors need clear evidence of how those returns are generated.
A separate earlier scheme targeted similar communities
AWS Mining was a separate investment scheme that collapsed in 2019. It advertised monthly returns of 15% to 20%, recruitment commissions and the chance to double an investment in about 15 months. These were promises, not established investment results.
The New York attorney general’s lawsuit concerns both AWS Mining and NovaTech. The office says the schemes targeted immigrant and religious communities, particularly Haitian communities, using Haitian Creole advertising, religious messages, prayer groups, WhatsApp and social media. It says more than 11, 000 New Yorkers invested in the two schemes and lost tens of millions of dollars. The office has also said the schemes affected hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide.
“These scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings, ” James said.
Shared language, faith and community ties can help legitimate services reach people underserved by traditional finance. Promoters can also exploit those ties to win trust for claims that deserve hard scrutiny. Responsibility for fraud rests with the people who deceive investors, not those they target.
What remains uncertain
The court has yet to decide whether the Petions must pay anything under the state’s request, or how much. Even if the court grants financial relief, collecting it will be a separate challenge. The available accounting is incomplete, too, leaving the full number of people affected and total losses unclear.
The promoter settlements could provide another source of recovery, but the state’s announcement does not explain how the money will be distributed or how much victims will ultimately receive. An agreed payment is not the same as money in investors’ hands.
Key questions and answers
-
What is New York seeking from the NovaTech founders?
The state has asked the court to order Cynthia and Eddy Petion to pay about $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement. The court has not yet set the amount of financial relief.
-
What did the default judgment decide?
In August 2025, the court entered judgment against the Petions and related companies after they failed to respond to the lawsuit. It also restricted their participation in cryptocurrency and securities businesses. The amount of financial relief was left for a later proceeding.
-
Will victims be repaid?
The four promoters agreed to pay a combined $5, 975, 861 for victims’ benefit, but the state has not said how much has been collected or how the money will be distributed. The larger amount sought from the Petions is still pending, and the full losses remain uncertain.
For investors, the warning is straightforward: demand verifiable trading records and a clear account of where funds go. A dashboard, recruitment pitch and promise of steady profits don’t prove that real trading or real returns exist. James has also led state-level opposition to the CLARITY Act over crypto fraud concerns, while an 18-state push to block the bill and warnings about weakening state fraud enforcement show what’s at stake in the design of crypto oversight.
