New York Seeks $1.37 Billion From NovaTech Founders Who Fled US

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking nearly $1.37 billion from NovaTech founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion, according to a court filing submitted Thursday, after an alleged pyramid scheme collected more than $1.16 billion in cryptocurrency deposits from investors.

The figure breaks down into $1.13 billion in disgorgement and $232.5 million in prejudgment interest. It follows a default judgment issued in August 2025, when the couple failed to respond to the lawsuit. James' office said the Petions have since fled the country.

What do the payment records show?

The filing draws on records from CoinPayments, NovaTech's payment processor. Those records show investors deposited $1.16 billion worth of cryptocurrency into NovaTech's wallet between August 2019 and May 2023. At least $134.5 million in withdrawals went to wallets belonging to the Petions, with Cynthia Petion authorizing the transfers.

The scale of diversion becomes clearer against the company's actual trading activity. NovaTech deposited $25.99 million with trading platform provider B2Broker between August 2019 and April 2023, and traders lost $18.19 million of that amount. In other words, for every dollar that reached the trading platform, more than five dollars flowed to wallets tied to the founders.

Prosecutors said NovaTech paid purported trading profits and recruitment bonuses using funds from new investors rather than legitimate trading gains — the defining mechanics of a Ponzi-style structure.

How did the case begin?

James sued NovaTech and cryptocurrency mining company AWS Mining in June 2024, alleging both operated illegal pyramid schemes. The enforcement action targeted not only the companies but the promoters who carried the scheme into specific communities.

"NovaTech and AWS Mining scammed thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers by telling them they were making a safe investment when in reality, they were victims of a pyramid scheme," James said in a statement. "These scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings."

What does this change for promoters and operators?

Separately from the founders' judgment, four promoters have agreed to pay nearly $6 million in disgorgement for victims and accepted permanent industry bars. They can no longer participate in the securities, commodities, or cryptocurrency industries in any capacity.

For practitioners, the settlement sends a precise signal: promoter liability in New York extends beyond the entities running the scheme to the individuals who marketed it, and the remedy is a lifetime ban rather than a fine. Compliance teams at platforms that onboarded NovaTech's flows — CoinPayments processed the deposits, B2Broker handled the trading — will also note that processor records formed the evidentiary backbone of the state's case.

What comes next?

The $1.37 billion request now sits with the court for a final damages determination. The Petions' absence complicates collection, but the default judgment preserves the state's claim against their assets, and the nearly $6 million promoter fund establishes a distribution channel for victim recovery.