NY Attorney General Asks Court for $1.37 Billion From NovaTech Founders, Four Promoters Settle for Nearly $6 Million

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Oct. 22 that her office has settled with four promoters of the NovaTech and AWS Mining crypto schemes. The same day, her office asked a court to order the founders, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, to pay more than $1.3 billion.

The two numbers sit far apart. The four settlements total nearly $6 million. The ask against the Petions is more than $1.3 billion.

The four settlements

The promoters will pay the following, to be disgorged for victims' benefit:

• Martin Zizi: $2.9 million
• Frantz Ciceron: $2.05 million
• James Corbett: $750,000
• Ricardo Roy Sr.: $275,861

All four are permanently barred from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries. The agreements resolve claims of false and misleading investment statements, unregistered brokerage activity and an illegal pyramid scheme.

James said in a statement that the schemes "targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings."

What the state alleges

James sued NovaTechFx and AWS Mining Pty Ltd. in June 2024. The state says AWS Mining promised investors monthly returns of 15% to 20%, a 200% return within 15 months, and bonuses for recruiting others. According to the AG, it did not generate enough to pay those promises and collapsed in 2019.

The Petions then started NovaTech, the state alleges. It says they falsely called it a registered hedge fund broker and a licensed U.S. crypto trader. They advertised weekly trading profits of about 2% to 4% and promised investors access to their money at any time.

Investors deposited more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency with NovaTech from August 2019 through April 2023, the AG says. Less than $26 million of it was traded on the platform. When NovaTech collapsed in 2023, tens of thousands of investors could not withdraw their funds.

The office says recruiters worked through prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp chats. They used Haitian Creole advertising and religious messages. More than 11,000 New Yorkers invested, from New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Rockland and Orange counties, and lost tens of millions of dollars. The AG says hundreds of thousands of investors were hit worldwide.

The $1.3 billion request

A court entered a default judgment against the Petions and related defendants in August 2025, after the couple, in the AG's words, fled the country. The judgment imposed industry restrictions. The dollar amount was left to be decided through written submissions.

In an affirmation filed Oct. 22, the AG's office asked for damages, disgorgement and costs. The NovaTech-related request comes to about $1.367 billion including interest. Separate amounts are sought for AWS Mining. None of that overlaps with the money from the four promoters.

Because the Petions never contested the case, the allegations against them were not tested at trial. A default judgment rests on their failure to appear.

Can anyone collect?

A $1.3 billion judgment against defendants who have left the United States is a number on paper until someone locates assets. Collecting on it requires locating and seizing assets, which becomes considerably harder when defendants are outside U.S. jurisdiction.

The settlements are the only money actually committed so far. Spread across more than 11,000 New York victims, and far more worldwide, the nearly $6 million would cover a small fraction of what the state says was lost.

The next step belongs to the court. A judge will decide how much of the $1.367 billion request to award, and the ruling will show whether that figure survives scrutiny and what victims might realistically see.