New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court on Oct. 22 to order cryptocurrency investment company NovaTech, its founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion, and related companies to pay more than $1.3 billion, following a 2025 default ruling on liability.
The filing seeks $1,367,023,585, including interest, in damages from the NovaTech fraud. It advances the state’s claim for victims, but does not establish that this sum has been awarded, collected or distributed.
According to the filing, an Aug. 4, 2025 default order found the defendants liable and ordered investor damages and disgorgement, or the surrender of money obtained through the fraud. The court left the amounts to be determined through written submissions.
The New York Attorney General’s office says more than 11,000 New Yorkers lost tens of millions of dollars in NovaTech and the related AWS Mining scheme. It says the schemes targeted immigrant and religious communities, particularly Haitian New Yorkers, through prayer groups, social media and WhatsApp.
The state says payments to investors and promoters came from other investors’ deposits, and argues those withdrawals should not reduce the amount NovaTech must surrender.
Its requested disgorgement starts with approximately $1.161 billion in identified investor cryptocurrency deposits, less about $26 million sent to the trading platform. The filing puts the resulting principal at $1,134,549,691, before $232,473,894 in interest.
The filing says most deposit usernames cannot reliably be matched to people without the court-ordered accounting that defendants have failed to provide. Most wallet withdrawals don’t identify recipients by name, limiting what those records can show about individual losses.
Settlement obligations stretch over years
Separately, the Oct. 22 announcement lists nearly $6 million in promoter obligations for victims’ benefit from Frantz Ciceron, James Corbett, Ricardo Roy Sr. and Martin Zizi.
According to the filing, Roy’s assurance dates to June 2024. Zizi’s stipulation was dated Nov. 25, 2025, and Corbett’s Oct. 20, 2026. Ciceron’s was dated May 14 and filed May 19, 2026.
Ciceron’s agreement combines $1.35 million in additional monetary relief with the transfer to New York of his and his entities’ rights to present and future EminiFX receivership distributions. The announcement puts his total obligation at $2 million.
The cash terms call for $850,000 within 30 days of court execution, followed by four $125,000 installments due each Dec. 31 from 2026 through 2029. Ciceron and Kings Multi Services Agency LLC neither admitted nor denied the complaint’s allegations.
Neither the announcement nor Ciceron’s schedule provides a completed victim payout total or an individual distribution date.
