NovaTech: New York seeks $1.3 billion from founders accused of defrauding Haitian investors

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a court on Thursday, October 22, to order Cynthia and Eddy Petion, founders of the cryptocurrency platform NovaTech, to pay $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement. According to the state, their scheme mainly targeted Haitian investors.

This is a civil case, not a criminal one. The request, filed in New York State Supreme Court for New York County, follows a default judgment issued in August 2025 against the couple, who, according to the Attorney General's office, had fled the country. That judgment already bars them from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries. The court has yet to rule on the amount sought.

What the state alleges

According to James's office, investors deposited more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency with NovaTech between August 2019 and April 2023, while less than $26 million was actually traded on its platform. NovaTech promised profits of roughly 2 to 4 percent a week and, the state says, falsely presented itself as a registered broker licensed to trade cryptocurrency in the United States.

The state's motion calls NovaTech a Ponzi scheme: the returns and recruitment bonuses, it alleges, "did not come from trading profits" but from new investors' deposits. NovaTech collapsed in May 2023, and tens of thousands of investors were unable to recover their savings.

According to the state, the Petions targeted immigrant and religious communities, especially Haitian ones, through prayer groups, WhatsApp chats and ads in Haitian Creole. More than 11,000 New Yorkers, from New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties, lost tens of millions of dollars, among hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide. Before NovaTech, the couple promoted AWS Mining, another platform that promised 15 to 20 percent monthly returns and collapsed in 2019.

"These scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life," James said.

Nearly $6 million recovered from promoters

The same day, the Attorney General announced settlements totaling nearly $6 million with four of the scheme's top promoters: Martin Zizi ($2.9 million), Frantz Ciceron ($2.05 million), James Corbett ($750,000) and Ricardo Roy Sr. ($275,861). The money will go to victims, and all four are permanently banned from those industries.

New York sued NovaTech, AWS Mining and the Petions in June 2024. Two months later, according to Decrypt, the SEC, the U.S. securities regulator, filed civil charges against the Petions and others over an alleged $650 million fraud.

Neither the Petions nor their lawyers have responded publicly, according to the reports reviewed. The couple's whereabouts have not been made public. Victims can file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at 1-800-771-7755 or at ag.ny.gov/file-complaint.