New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking a state court to order cryptocurrency investment company NovaTech, its founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion, and related entities to pay $1,367,023,585 over an alleged fraud that authorities say affected more than 11,000 New Yorkers.
The request follows an August 2025 default ruling that found the defendants liable. However, the amount sought has not yet been awarded, collected or distributed to victims. According to CryptoSlate, the state’s October 22 filing asks the court to determine damages and disgorgement—the return of money allegedly obtained through the scheme—through written submissions.
What New York is seeking
The requested total includes a principal amount of $1,134,549,691 and $232,473,894 in interest. The state calculated the principal by starting with approximately $1.161 billion in identified cryptocurrency deposits from investors and subtracting about $26 million sent to a trading platform.
New York argues that payments made to investors and promoters should not reduce the amount the defendants are required to surrender. The state’s position is that those payments came from deposits made by other investors, rather than representing legitimate returns generated by the investment operation.
The filing also highlights difficulties in identifying individual losses. Most deposit usernames cannot reliably be connected to specific people without an accounting that the defendants were ordered to provide but have not supplied. In addition, many wallet withdrawals do not identify recipients by name. As a result, transaction records alone may not show how much each individual investor lost or who received particular withdrawals.
The August 4, 2025 default order established liability and directed the defendants to pay investor damages and disgorgement, while leaving the precise amounts for a later stage. The October 22 motion is part of that process. It advances New York’s financial claim on behalf of affected investors, but it does not itself create a completed compensation fund or establish when victims will receive money.
More than 11,000 New Yorkers affected
The New York Attorney General’s office says more than 11,000 New Yorkers lost tens of millions of dollars through NovaTech and the related AWS Mining scheme. According to the state, the operations targeted immigrant and religious communities, with Haitian New Yorkers among those affected.
The alleged outreach included prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp. That detail helps explain the state’s description of the case as extending beyond a conventional online investment promotion: the schemes allegedly relied on community networks to reach prospective participants.
The filing concerns both the amount that New York wants the defendants to surrender and the accounting needed to determine individual losses. Until the records are reconciled, the total requested by the state should not be read as a sum already allocated among the more than 11,000 people identified by the attorney general’s office.
Separate promoter obligations may take years
New York’s October 22 announcement also lists nearly $6 million in separate obligations involving promoters Frantz Ciceron, James Corbett, Ricardo Roy Sr. and Martin Zizi. These obligations are described as being for victims’ benefit, but they do not demonstrate that equivalent sums have already been distributed to NovaTech or AWS Mining victims.
The agreements and assurances were made at different times. Roy’s assurance dates to June 2024, while Zizi’s stipulation was dated November 25, 2025, and Corbett’s was dated October 20, 2026. Ciceron’s agreement was dated May 14 and filed on May 19, 2026.
Ciceron’s arrangement includes $1.35 million in additional monetary relief, along with the transfer to New York of his and his entities’ rights to present and future distributions from the EminiFX receivership. The state’s announcement puts his total obligation at $2 million.
The cash portion is scheduled to be paid in installments: $850,000 within 30 days after the court executes the agreement, followed by four payments of $125,000 due on December 31 in each year from 2026 through 2029. Ciceron and Kings Multi Services Agency LLC neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the complaint.
The state deadlines in these agreements are separate from any eventual dates for payments to victims. Neither the announcement nor Ciceron’s payment schedule provides a completed total for victim distributions or an individual payout date.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 08:18-08:19 on October 24, 2026, showed mixed-to-lower performance among the four listed crypto assets:
- Lighter (LIT): $3.0949156268, down 9.48% over 24 hours and 3.53% over seven days.
- Nexus (NEX): $0.0000006249, down 1.14% over 24 hours and 14.75% over seven days.
- Decimal (DEL): $0.458442584, unchanged over 24 hours and up 4.54% over seven days.
- Ronin (RON): $0.0545231635, down 4.01% over 24 hours and 11.98% over seven days.
These market figures describe the performance of the listed assets and do not measure the status of the NovaTech case, the amount recoverable for victims or the timing of any court-ordered payments.
