New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking roughly $1.37 billion from the founders of collapsed crypto trading platform NovaTech, alleging that the company used religious and community networks to attract investors before tens of thousands were unable to withdraw their funds. The case highlights the difficulty of recovering money even after a court judgment, because founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion left the United States before the state obtained a default judgment.
State seeks damages and repayment
In a filing with New York County Supreme Court, James’ office asked a judge to order the Petions, NovaTech and related companies to pay about $1.37 billion. The proposed amount includes damages, the repayment of money allegedly obtained through the scheme, and interest.
The request follows an August 2025 default judgment. The Petions did not respond to the state’s lawsuit after leaving the U.S., according to James’ office. That judgment also permanently barred them from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries.
The state is seeking approximately $1.13 billion in disgorgement, or the return of funds allegedly acquired through the operation, along with about $232 million in interest. Payment of the judgment could be difficult, however, because the founders are outside the country.
Four senior promoters have reached separate settlements with the state. Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, Ricardo Roy Sr. and James Corbett agreed to pay nearly $6 million for the benefit of victims. They have also been permanently prohibited from working in the securities, commodities and crypto industries.
According to Decrypt, the settlements and the state’s latest filing follow legal action that began in June 2024, when James sued NovaTech and AWS Mining. The attorney general alleged that investors had been defrauded of more than $1 billion. The Securities and Exchange Commission separately charged the Petions and others two months later, describing the alleged fraud as a $650 million operation.
How NovaTech attracted investors
The alleged scheme focused particularly on Haitian communities in New York and elsewhere. The state said promoters used prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp conversations, along with advertising in Haitian Creole and religious messaging, to reach potential investors. More than 11,000 New Yorkers were among the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who invested, according to the attorney general’s office.
NovaTech presented itself as a registered hedge-fund broker that was licensed to trade cryptocurrency in the United States. It advertised returns of 2% to 4% per week, which the state said amounted to more than 140% annually.
The state alleges that NovaTech did not generate those returns through successful trading. Between 2019 and 2023, it sent just under $26 million to its trading provider and lost approximately $18.2 million of that money. Weekly payouts and bonuses for recruiting new participants allegedly came from deposits made by later investors instead.
When NovaTech collapsed in 2023, tens of thousands of investors reportedly could no longer withdraw their funds. Payment-processor data from CoinPayments showed that investors deposited about $1.16 billion in cryptocurrency into a NovaTech wallet between August 2019 and May 2023. Cynthia Petion was listed as the wallet’s only authorized user, according to the state filing.
The filing further alleges that at least $134.5 million was transferred to wallets associated with the Petions. After accounting for the funds sent to the trading provider, New York calculated the requested disgorgement at about $1.13 billion, before adding interest.
Earlier allegations involving AWS Mining
The state’s case also points to the Petions’ earlier involvement with AWS Mining. Before NovaTech, they were among the leading U.S. promoters of that operation, which promised monthly returns of 15% to 20% from cryptocurrency mining before collapsing in 2019.
According to the filing, Cynthia Petion acknowledged in a WhatsApp conversation that she had made at least $3 million from AWS Mining. The state’s allegations concerning both operations form part of its broader effort to recover funds and restrict the activities of the people who promoted them.
James said the alleged conduct exploited immigrant and religious communities by presenting the prospect of financial improvement while putting victims’ savings at risk. The four promoters’ settlements provide a defined pool for victims, but the much larger claim against the founders remains subject to the practical challenge of collecting from defendants who have left the country.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data at 08:13 on October 24, 2026, showed a generally weaker picture among three of the listed crypto assets:
- NEAR Protocol (NEAR): $4.5591040653, down 7.58% over 24 hours and 10.4% over seven days.
- Raydium (RAY): $1.8068845509, down 2.59% over 24 hours and 2.33% over seven days.
- Four (FORM): $0.2244204587, down 4.98% over 24 hours and 12.39% over seven days.
- Billions Network (BILL): $0.0139971939, down 0.59% over 24 hours but up 10.04% over seven days.
These market figures describe asset prices and recent performance; they do not indicate any connection between the listed tokens and the NovaTech case.
