NovaTech founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion could owe nearly $1.37 billion after New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court to determine what the couple must pay — almost four years after they fled the United States in mid-2022.

The move lands amid deep frustration for victims. Authorities have so far recovered only $5.98 million, mainly through settlements with the scheme's promoters — a sum that pales next to the losses NovaTech caused its customers and dims any hope of full repayment.

New York's $1.37 billion pursuit of absent founders

The $1.37 billion James is pursuing from the Petions breaks down into $1.13 billion in disgorgement — the surrender of profits allegedly gained through wrongdoing — and $232.5 million in prejudgment interest covering the period before a final judgment. The request moves through an inquest, a process that allows the court to assign a dollar figure after liability has already been settled, meaning the $1.37 billion represents what the state is asking for rather than a court-determined figure.

Liability in the NovaTech case was fixed in August 2025 through a default judgment, entered after Cynthia and Eddy Petion — who have since fled the country — never answered the lawsuit. The couple previously lived in Wellington, Florida, until roughly May 2022, and as of August 2024 the SEC placed Cynthia Petion in Panama. A judgment against two people outside US jurisdiction, with no records produced, is a claim on paper more than a path to recovery.

The development brings fresh frustration to the more than 11,000 New Yorkers who lost tens of millions of dollars putting money into NovaTech and the Petions' earlier AWS Mining program.

Promoters settle while the founders remain at large

While the Petions remain out of reach, four promoters of the scheme — Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, James Corbett, and Ricardo Roy Sr. — have agreed to pay disgorgement to victims, according to the Attorney General's announcement. Zizi will pay $2.9 million, Ciceron $2.05 million, Corbett $750,000, and Roy Sr. $275,861 — amounts that together account for essentially all of the $5.98 million recovered so far. All four were also permanently banned from the securities, commodities, and crypto industries.

Mismanaged funds and glaring accounting gaps

The attorney general's office found major accounting gaps when it examined the $1.16 billion in cryptocurrency that investors deposited into NovaTech wallets between August 2019 and May 2023. Only $25.99 million of that sum — just over 2 percent of customer deposits — was actually sent from the company to its trading provider, B2Broker, and traders lost $18.19 million of that amount.

According to the filing by James' office, Cynthia Petion authorized withdrawals of at least $134.5 million to wallets linked to herself and her husband. The attorney general says NovaTech operated less like a genuine trading platform and more like a pyramid scheme, paying supposed profits and recruitment bonuses out of new deposits.

A marketing machine built on trust

NovaTech's marketing exploited the trust customers placed in their recruiters, concentrating on Haitian immigrant and religious communities through social media and WhatsApp prayer groups and chats, alongside advertisements in Haitian Creole. Victims believed they could withdraw their funds at any time, having been told NovaTech was a registered hedge fund broker licensed to trade crypto in the United States.

The founders' second scheme

NovaTech was not the Petions' first venture. AWS Mining, which promised monthly returns of 15% to 20%, collapsed in 2019 before NovaTech launched.

The SEC charged the Petions and six promoters over the $650 million fraud, which touched more than 200,000 investors worldwide, according to the regulator's complaint. The agency said NovaTech reported weekly gains of 2% to 3% while trading only a fraction of deposits. NovaTech collapsed in May 2023.

Source: Cryptopolitan