New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $1.3 billion in damages from Cynthia and Eddy Petion, the founders of the crypto platform NovaTechFx. The court entered a default judgment against the couple in August 2025 after they left the United States and failed to appear in legal proceedings.
Prosecutors allege that between August 2019 and April 2023, NovaTech collected over $1 billion in digital asset deposits from more than 200,000 global investors. Only about $26 million of these funds were actually traded, with returns paid to earlier participants using deposits from new investors.
The platform collapsed in May 2023, leaving thousands of users unable to access their accounts. The lawsuit, filed on June 6, 2024, also links the founders to a previous operation called AWS Mining, which failed in 2019. The scheme reportedly targeted immigrant communities through social and religious networks.
On October 22, 2026, the Attorney General's office announced the recovery of nearly $6 million from four individuals who promoted the scheme. Collecting the full $1.3 billion remains difficult as the defendants are currently outside of United States jurisdiction.
