2024

James

Four

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 <h2 style="margin: 0 0 10px; font-size: 0.9em; letter-spacing: 0.12em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #f43f5e;" id="key-takeaways">Key Takeaways</h2>
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  <p style="margin: 0; padding-left: 12px; border-left: 3px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.6);"><strong>Founders: $1.37 billion sought, including $232 million interest</strong></p>
  <p style="margin: 0; padding-left: 12px; border-left: 3px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.6);"><strong>Investors deposited $1.16 billion; $26 million reached trading</strong></p>
  <p style="margin: 0; padding-left: 12px; border-left: 3px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.6);"><strong>Four promoter settlements total about $5.98 million</strong></p>
  <p style="margin: 0; padding-left: 12px; border-left: 3px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.6);"><strong>Corbett’s first installment due April 1, 2027</strong></p>
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<p>Attorney General Letitia James <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-nearly-6-million-crypto-scammers-who-targeted" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">announced the settlements and the court request on October 22</a>.</p>
<h2 id="the-founders-never-showed-up-in-court">The founders never showed up in court</h2>
<p>The request targets Cynthia and Eddy Petion, who ran NovaTech, along with their companies. They never responded to the state’s June 2024 lawsuit, and in August 2025 a judge entered a default judgment finding them liable and barring them from promoting or selling securities, commodities or cryptocurrencies in New York. According to the attorney general, the couple fled the country.</p>
<p>The state’s <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/new-york-v-nova-tech-ltd-et-al-affirmation-2026.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">filing</a> asks the court to order $1,134,549,691 in disgorgement, meaning the surrender of money obtained through the fraud, plus $232,473,894 in prejudgment interest, for a NovaTech total of $1,367,023,585. It seeks about $6.2 million more over the earlier AWS Mining scheme.</p>
<p>The Petions also ignored the court’s order to hand over investor records and a full accounting. Without those records, the filing says, most NovaTech depositors appear only as usernames such as “moneywhileyousleep” that cannot be matched to real people with any certainty.</p>
<h2 id="over-1-16-billion-in-about-26-million-traded">Over $1.16 billion in, about $26 million traded</h2>
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  <p style="margin: 0; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 800;">$1.16B</p>
  <p style="margin: 4px 0 0; font-size: 0.88em; opacity: 0.85;">Deposited by investors, 2019 to 2023</p>
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  <p style="margin: 0; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 800;">$26M</p>
  <p style="margin: 4px 0 0; font-size: 0.88em; opacity: 0.85;">Sent to the trading platform</p>
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  <p style="margin: 0; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 800;">$18.2M</p>
  <p style="margin: 4px 0 0; font-size: 0.88em; opacity: 0.85;">Of that lost in trading</p>
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  <p style="margin: 0; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 800;">$134.5M+</p>
  <p style="margin: 4px 0 0; font-size: 0.88em; opacity: 0.85;">Withdrawn to the Petions’ own wallets</p>
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<p>The deposits went into a single payment wallet that, according to the filing, only Cynthia Petion could control. A sliver was sent to the trading platform NovaTech licensed from B2Broker, and most of that was lost. The advertised weekly returns of 2% to 4% were fabricated, the state says, and paid out of other investors’ deposits.</p>
<p>The pitch ran through trusted networks. The Petions reached Haitian communities through prayer groups, WhatsApp chats and Haitian Creole advertisements with religious messages, and falsely marketed NovaTech as a registered hedge fund broker licensed to trade crypto in the U.S., according to the state. Their earlier venture, AWS Mining, promised 15% to 20% monthly returns before collapsing in 2019.</p>
<p>When NovaTech collapsed in 2023, tens of thousands of investors could not withdraw. The state counts more than 11,000 New York victims across both schemes, among hundreds of thousands worldwide. The <a href="https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26072" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SEC brought a separate federal case</a> in 2024.</p>
<h2 id="the-nearly-6-million-arrives-slowly">The nearly $6 million arrives slowly</h2>
<p>All four promoters are permanently banned from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries.</p>
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    <th style="padding: 11px 14px;" scope="col">Promoter</th>
    <th style="padding: 11px 14px;" scope="col">Amount</th>
    <th style="padding: 11px 14px;" scope="col">Agreement</th>
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   <tr>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">Martin Zizi</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">$2.9 million</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">Stipulation and consent</td>
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   <tr style="background: rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.07);">
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">Frantz Ciceron</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">$2.05 million</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">Stipulation and consent, May 2026</td>
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    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">James Corbett</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">$750,000</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.3);">Stipulation and consent, October 2026</td>
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   <tr style="background: rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.07);">
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px;">Ricardo Roy Sr.</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px;">$275,861</td>
    <td style="padding: 11px 14px;">Assurance of discontinuance, June 2024</td>
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<p>Corbett’s <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/new-york-v-nova-tech-ltd-et-al-corbett-stipulation-and-consent-2026.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">October agreement</a> spreads his first $200,000 over eight $25,000 installments, one every six months.</p>
<div style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 6px; margin: 18px 0 22px;"><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Apr 2027</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jul 2027</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jan 2028</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jul 2028</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jan 2029</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jul 2029</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgba(225, 29, 72, 0.5); font-size: 0.85em; color: inherit;">Jan 2030</span><br><span style="padding: 6px 10px; border-radius: 6px; background: #be123c; color: #ffffff; font-size: 0.85em;">Jul 2030</span>
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<p>The other $550,000 is due only once Corbett earns more than $80,000 a year, with 35% of income above that level going toward the balance. Unpaid amounts accrue 9% annual interest, and he must file sworn financial statements twice a year. The full balance becomes due at once if the state finds he misstated or left out any material asset, and money he receives from settlements with multi-level marketing companies, including GS Partners, goes to the state up to what he still owes.</p>
<p>Ciceron’s <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/new-york-v-nova-tech-ltd-et-al-ciceron-stipulation-and-consent-2026.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">May agreement</a> hands New York his rights to any distributions from the receiver in the CFTC’s separate EminiFX fraud case, plus $1.35 million in cash: $850,000 within 30 days of the court signing the order, and $500,000 in four $125,000 installments due by the end of each year from 2026 to 2029. He settled without admitting or denying the allegations. Roy, who is Cynthia Petion’s brother according to the filing, signed his agreement with the state in June 2024.</p>
<h2 id="no-claims-process-yet">No claims process yet</h2>
<p>The announcement does not say how much of the promoters’ money has been collected, who can claim it, or when payments to victims will begin, and the missing investor records will make any claims process harder to build. As other cases show, <a href="https://coindoo.com/scam-crypto-seized-victims-still-wait/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">recovering assets and paying victims are separate steps</a>.</p>
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 <p style="margin: 0 0 8px;"><strong>Dec 31, 2026:</strong> Ciceron’s first $125,000 installment due</p>
 <p style="margin: 0 0 8px;"><strong>Apr 1, 2027:</strong> Corbett’s first $25,000 installment due</p>
 <p style="margin: 0;"><strong>Pending:</strong> the court’s ruling on the $1.37 billion request, and any claims process from the attorney general</p>
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<p style="text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;"><em>This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial or investment advice. Court requests, settlement obligations and distributions to investors represent separate stages of the proceedings.</em></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://coindoo.com/new-york-wants-1-3b-from-crypto-founders-who-fled/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">New York Wants $1.3B From Crypto Founders Who Fled</a> appeared first on <a href="https://coindoo.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coindoo</a>.</p>

New York Wants $1.3B From Crypto Founders Who Fled

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