TL;DR: New York’s attorney general is seeking $1.3 billion in monetary relief in the NovaTech case and has announced nearly $6 million in promoter settlements. The larger sum is a request to the court, not money recovered for investors.

New York’s effort to recover losses from the NovaTech cryptocurrency scheme has reached a new stage, with Attorney General Letitia James asking a court to impose roughly $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement.

The October 22 announcement also disclosed nearly $6 million in settlements with four promoters. Those are separate from the much larger claim involving founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion. The announcement does not establish that either amount has already reached victims.

The case concerns investment packages sold through NovaTech and an earlier business, AWS Mining. According to the attorney general, the schemes targeted Haitian and other immigrant communities through religious networks, social media and messaging groups.

The New Filing Follows An Earlier Judgment

An affirmation filed on October 22 supports the request for monetary relief. It records that New York sued in June 2024 and that the defaulting defendants did not respond or appear. The court entered a default order and judgment on August 4, 2025.

The latest motion asks the court to determine the financial consequences. It should not be confused with a new criminal conviction, a completed recovery or a guarantee that a judgment can be collected. Those distinctions are particularly important when the sums sought are much larger than the settlements announced alongside them.

The promoter figures listed by the attorney general are $2.9 million from Martin Zizi, $2.05 million from Frantz Ciceron, $750,000 from James Corbett and $275,861 from Ricardo Roy Sr. All four face permanent bans from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries.

The timing also needs care: the Zizi consent papers were filed in November 2025. This week’s announcement brings the settlement figures together; it does not mean every agreement was signed this week.

Recruitment Promises Outran The Trading Business

The original mining operation offered high returns and recruiting bonuses, according to the court affirmation. NovaTech later marketed cryptocurrency trading packages. The cryptocurrency label described how investors supplied money, but the underlying issue was what operators actually did with it.

That is a useful distinction for readers assessing similar pitches. An account balance on a website does not establish that assets exist, that trades occurred or that withdrawals can be honored. Nor does a familiar community connection answer questions about custody and control of funds.

For affected investors, the next substantive development will be the court’s decision on monetary relief and any subsequent recovery process. The announced settlements and the requested award address different defendants and different steps in that process; combining them into a headline recovery figure would overstate what has happened.

Related reading: How crypto exchanges work.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Bitcoin Magazine

NY Seeks $1.37 Billion Judgment Against Operators of NovaTech Crypto Ponzi Scheme

New York Attorney General Letitia James is trying to secure a $1.37 billion judgment against the operators of NovaTech and its predecessor AWS Mining, two successive cryptocurrency investment schemes that allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide out of more than $1 billion.

Alleged founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion never appeared in court and, according to the AG’s office, fled the country.

“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,” James said in a statement. “These scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings.”

The schemes, AWS Mining and later NovaTech, relied on promoters who recruited heavily in Haitian and other immigrant communities — through prayer groups, WhatsApp chats, and ads in Haitian Creole.

AWS Mining sold crypto mining contracts promising 15 to 20 percent monthly returns and 200 percent within 15 months. It collapsed in 2019. The Petions then launched NovaTech, marketed as a registered hedge fund broker, promising weekly trading returns of two to four percent — more than 140 percent a year.

Those returns were fabricated, according to prosecutors. Records from B2Broker, which supplied NovaTech’s white-label trading platform, show that of the more than $1 billion investors deposited between 2019 and 2023, only about $26 million was ever actually traded — and NovaTech’s traders lost $18.2 million of that. Returns to earlier investors came from newer deposits, not trading. When NovaTech collapsed in mid-2023, tens of thousands of investors could not withdraw their funds.

The AG is also seeking $134.5 million the Petions allegedly withdrew to their own wallets from the investor account Cynthia Petion solely controlled, plus $4.7 million tied to the earlier AWS Mining scheme. A default judgment entered in August 2025 already bars the couple and their companies from the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries.

Separately, four of the scheme’s top promoters have agreed to pay nearly $6 million in disgorgement to victims and accepted the same industry bans.

This post NY Seeks $1.37 Billion Judgment Against Operators of NovaTech Crypto Ponzi Scheme first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.