New York Seeks $1.37 Billion From NovaTech Founders Over Crypto Fraud

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state judge on Thursday to order the founders of collapsed crypto trading platform NovaTech to pay about $1.37 billion in damages, disgorgement and interest. The couple, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, have fled the U.S. and failed to respond to the state's lawsuit, according to James. The filing in New York County Supreme Court follows an August 2025 default judgment that also banned the Petions from the securities, commodities and crypto industries. James separately announced settlements totaling nearly $6 million with four top promoters — Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, Ricardo Roy Sr. and James Corbett — who are permanently barred from those industries. James sued NovaTech and AWS Mining in June 2024, alleging investors were defrauded of more than $1 billion. According to the state, NovaTech marketed itself as a registered hedge fund broker advertising weekly returns of 2% to 4%, but sent just under $26 million to its trading provider between 2019 and 2023 and lost about $18.2 million of it, paying earlier investors with new deposits. More than 11,000 New Yorkers were among hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide.