New York AG Seeks $1.37 Billion From NovaTech Founders in Pyramid Scheme Case
Published October 23, 2026, 06:20 PM PKT. Based on the New York Attorney General press release of October 22, 2026 (primary source), and CoinTelegraph reporting of October 23, 2026 on the court filing and Crypto Times reporting of October 23, 2026 (secondary sources).
New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked a court to order the founders of the collapsed crypto platform NovaTech to pay $1.37 billion, the largest single dollar figure yet attached to the pyramid scheme case. The filing seeks the return of about $1.13 billion in investor funds plus $232.5 million in interest from NovaTech founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion and related companies, according to CoinTelegraph, which reviewed the Thursday court filing. The request lands more than three years after NovaTech collapsed in May 2023 and locked investors out of their accounts, and it follows a default judgment entered in August 2025 after the Petions failed to respond to the lawsuit. The Attorney General's office said the couple fled the country, a fact that will shape everything about whether any of the money is ever recovered.
The $1.37 billion the court is being asked to order
The headline number is built from three pieces, and the filing itemizes each one. The largest piece is about $1.13 billion in investor funds, plus $232.5 million in interest, which together come to about $1.36 billion for NovaTech itself. A separate motion seeks about $6.15 million, including interest, over AWS Mining, the earlier crypto mining scheme connected to the same founders, which takes the combined demand to about $1.37 billion. The distinction matters because the Attorney General is not asking for a single lump sum on a single theory: the NovaTech demand rests on investor deposits that the filing says were never traded as promised, while the AWS Mining demand covers the predecessor scheme that collapsed in 2019. The court has already found the Petions and the companies liable by default, so the inquest now before the court is about the amount, not about whether liability exists. What the court has not yet decided is the final order, and CoinTelegraph reported that the Attorney General's office had not responded by publication to questions about how recovered funds would be distributed to victims or how the judgment could be enforced against founders who are no longer in the country.
The four promoters paying nearly $6 million
Alongside the billion dollar demand, the Attorney General secured settlements worth nearly $6 million from four of the scheme's top promoters, and the individual amounts show who the office says profited most from recruitment. Martin Zizi will pay $2.9 million, Frantz Ciceron will pay $2.05 million, James Corbett will pay $750,000, and Ricardo Roy, Sr. will pay $275,861, according to the Attorney General's office, for a combined $5,975,861 in disgorgement designated for the benefit of victims. All four are permanently banned from participating in the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries, a ban that ends their ability to market investment products in New York in any of those markets. The settlements resolve claims that the promoters made deceptive representations when offering AWS Mining contracts and NovaTech trading packages, operated as unregistered brokers, and participated in an unlawful pyramid structure, according to Basis Desk's summary of the Attorney General's announcement. The contrast between the two tracks is stark: the promoters who stayed and settled pay millions and lose their livelihoods in the industry, while the founders who left face a demand more than 200 times larger with no settlement and no stated path to payment.
Only $26 million of $1.16 billion was ever traded
The filing's most damning figure is not the demand but the gap between what investors were told and what happened to their money. Investors deposited about $1.16 billion into NovaTech's crypto wallets between August 2019 and May 2023, according to the filing, but only about $26 million of that was ever deposited with the platform's trading provider, B2Broker, for trading. That means roughly 2.2 percent of investor money reached anything resembling the trading operation that was advertised, while the rest, prosecutors say, went to pay earlier investors and to promoters in commissions, the classic mechanics of a Ponzi scheme. The scheme reached more than 200,000 investors worldwide, according to the Attorney General's complaint, including more than 11,000 New Yorkers who lost tens of millions of dollars. Promoters targeted Haitian and other immigrant communities in particular, the Attorney General said, recruiting through prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp group chats, with advertisements in Haitian Creole and messages appealing to faith, and promising high returns plus bonuses for recruiting new investors. Attorney General James put it in plain terms in her statement: "NovaTech and AWS Mining scammed thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers by telling them they were making a safe investment when in reality, they were victims of a pyramid scheme."
From AWS Mining to NovaTech, and what happens next
The case is really two schemes with the same founders, and the timeline shows how one collapse fed the next. AWS Mining, which promised high returns on crypto mining investments, collapsed in 2019, according to the Attorney General's office, and NovaTech began taking its first deposits in August 2019, shortly after. NovaTech then ran until May 2023, when it collapsed and locked tens of thousands of investors out of their funds. James sued NovaTechFx, AWS Mining and associated companies on June 6, 2024, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately charged the Petions and promoters in 2024, alleging in a parallel complaint that they raised more than $650 million from over 200,000 investors globally through comparable misrepresentations, according to Crypto Times. The next step is the court's decision on the inquest, which will set the final amount the Petions owe. For victims, the honest position is narrower than the headline suggests: a court order for $1.37 billion is not $1.37 billion recovered, and recovery depends on locating assets belonging to founders who, according to the Attorney General, have already fled the country. The settlements from the four promoters are real money designated for victims, but at just under $6 million they cover only a small fraction of the tens of millions lost by New Yorkers alone. The case still stands as a warning that carries beyond NovaTech: unregistered crypto offerings that promise high returns and pay recruitment bonuses, marketed inside trusted community and faith networks, are exactly the pattern regulators say they will keep pursuing.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- New York Attorney General, Attorney General James Secures Nearly $6 Million From Crypto Scammers Who Targeted Haitian Communities (October 22, 2026), primary source
- CoinTelegraph, New York AG Seeks $1.37B Over NovaTech Ponzi Scheme (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- Crypto Times, NovaTech Founders Face $1.37B Demand From NY AG in Alleged Crypto Pyramid Scheme (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- Basis Desk, NY AG Secures $6M NovaTech Settlement, Seeks $1.3B (October 23, 2026), secondary source
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