New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked a court to order the founders of defunct crypto and forex trading platform NovaTech, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, along with related companies, to pay $1.37 billion over a Ponzi scheme.

According to a Thursday court filing, the attorney general is seeking the return of approximately $1.13 billion in investor funds, plus $232.5 million in interest. The court found the Petions and the associated companies liable by default in August 2025 after they failed to respond to the lawsuit. A default finding means the allegations went unchallenged in court, and because the amounts are being sought through a motion, the judge must still decide what, if anything, to award.

The motion also addresses an earlier venture. The attorney general separately seeks about $6.15 million, including interest, over AWS Mining, a crypto mining scheme that collapsed in 2019. James sued NovaTech, AWS Mining and other associated companies in June 2024.

More than 11,000 New Yorkers lost tens of millions of dollars through NovaTech and AWS Mining, according to the attorney general's office. The complaint alleged that promoters targeted Haitian and other immigrant communities through prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp, promising high returns and recruitment bonuses.

The filing details the flow of funds: investors deposited roughly $1.16 billion into NovaTech's crypto wallets between August 2019 and May 2023. Of that total, only about $26 million was placed with the platform's trading provider, B2Broker, for trading, according to the attorney general. Those figures are central to the office's accounting of how the operation worked.

NovaTech collapsed in 2023, leaving tens of thousands of investors unable to withdraw their funds.

In a separate development, four people who recruited investors into NovaTech have agreed to pay nearly $6 million in settlements intended to benefit victims, according to the AG's office. Those agreements are separate from the pending request for a judgment against the founders and their companies.

Cointelegraph sought comment from the New York Attorney General's Office on how any recovered funds would be distributed to victims and what steps could be taken to enforce the judgment, but had not received a response by publication. How the court rules on the state's monetary request — and whether the funds can actually be recovered and distributed — remains the open thread to watch in the case.