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New York AG seeks $1.37B against NovaTech's Petions, settles 4 promoters for $6M

Letitia James's affirmation asks the court to turn August 2025's default against Cynthia and Eddy Petion into $1.13B disgorgement plus $232M interest; four top promoters settle for $5.98M.

by 3 min read
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New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an affirmation in Manhattan Supreme Court on October 22, 2026 asking the court to order NovaTech co-founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion to pay $1.37 billion — $1.13 billion in disgorgement plus $232.5 million in pre-judgment interest — and announced simultaneous settlements worth $5.98 million with four of the scheme's top promoters, per the AG's press release.

What happened

James's office opened the civil case in June 2024 against NovaTechFx, AWS Mining Pty Ltd., and the Petions. The Petions have been outside the US since the collapse; the court entered a default judgment against them in August 2025 that permanently banned them from the securities, commodities, and crypto industries. The affirmation filed Thursday is the quantification step — it asks the court to fix a dollar figure on the default.

The four settling promoters are banned for life from the same industries and will restore funds to victims under the schedule:

Martin Zizi       : $2,900,000
Frantz Ciceron    : $2,050,000
James Corbett     :   $750,000
Ricardo Roy, Sr.  :   $275,861
                 ------------
                   $5,975,861

Sources: the AG's press release and the affirmation filed in New York v. Nova Tech Ltd. et al..

How the scheme worked

  • AWS Mining (2015–2019) promised 15–20% monthly returns, 200% within 15 months, and recruitment bonuses. It collapsed in 2019.
  • NovaTech (August 2019 – April 2023) promised 2–4% weekly trading returns and recruitment bonuses, and falsely claimed to be a registered US hedge-fund broker licensed to trade crypto. It let members "withdraw at any time" — until it didn't.
  • Promoters recruited through prayer groups and WhatsApp chats in Haitian Creole, aimed at Haitian, immigrant and religious communities in New York. More than 11,000 New Yorkers invested.

The AG's office tracked how deposits moved:

- Deposits received  : >$1,000,000,000 (cryptocurrency)
- Actually traded    :    <$26,000,000
- NY-victim losses   :     Tens of millions ("more than 11,000 New Yorkers")

The gap is why the AG calls NovaTech an illegal pyramid scheme. Deposits paid earlier members and bonuses to promoters; the "trading operation" was a shell.

What's new today

The affirmation and the four settlements turn an unquantified default into a collectible judgment and close out the recoverable promoter track. The Petions themselves remain abroad; the $1.37B figure is a debt, not a seizure. The $5.98M is money that will actually move: it is paid into a victim-restitution fund the AG manages.

The industry bans attach to each of Zizi, Ciceron, Corbett, Roy Sr., Cynthia Petion and Eddy Petion: no US-licensed securities, commodities, or cryptocurrency work. That's six individual bans tied to one defunct scheme.

What to watch

  1. The court order. The affirmation is a request; the court still has to adopt the $1.37B figure. If it does, James has a judgment she can register in any state where the Petions eventually surface or hold assets.
  2. Extradition posture. The press release does not name where the Petions are. Previous reporting placed them in Panama; no US extradition action has been publicly announced.
  3. Follow-on complaints. The AG action is state-level civil. Federal criminal matters involving Haitian-targeted crypto schemes are often parallel; whether DOJ or Southern District prosecutors file against the Petions or additional downstream promoters is the next thread.
  4. Victim recovery mechanics. $5.98M against "tens of millions" in NY losses is partial. The AG's distribution plan, which it manages through its restitution fund, is the piece that reaches the 11,000 investors.

Context

NovaTech sits in the long tail of 2020–2023 affinity-fraud Ponzi schemes dressed as crypto: BitClub Network, Mining Capital Coin, OneCoin — the recruitment pattern is older than Bitcoin. What NovaTech added was WhatsApp distribution and multi-level promoter commissions, which turned religious-community trust into a growth channel. The judgment, if entered, becomes a template amount for the next AG affirmation on the next WhatsApp-recruited pyramid.

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