Attorney General James Secures Nearly $6 Million From Crypto Scammers Who Targeted Haitian Communities

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James secured nearly $6 million from the leaders of an insidious cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that targeted Haitian and other communities, defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide, including more than 11,000 New Yorkers. In June 2024, Attorney General James sued cryptocurrency trading company NovaTechFx (NovaTech) and cryptocurrency mining company AWS Mining Pty Ltd. (AWS Mining) for targeting immigrant communities, particularly Haitian New Yorkers, in prayer groups and through social media and WhatsApp group chats with fraudulent promises of high returns on investments, while running illegal pyramid schemes. As a result of Attorney General James’ lawsuit, four of the scheme’s top promoters – Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, Ricardo Roy, Sr., and James Corbett – will pay millions in disgorgement for the benefit of victims, and have been permanently banned from participating in the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries. Today, Attorney General James is also asking the court to order NovaTech’s founders, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, to pay $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement, following a default judgment issued in August 2025 after the couple fled the country.

“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,” said Attorney General James. “These scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings. My office remains committed to cracking down on unregistered cryptocurrency dealers, and we will always stand up for New Yorkers who have been targeted by these merciless scams.”

More than 11,000 New Yorkers from all over the state, including New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Rockland and Orange counties, invested in NovaTech and AWS Mining and lost tens of millions of dollars. AWS Mining and its promoters, including the Petions, promised investors 15 to 20 percent monthly returns, 200 percent returns on investments within 15 months, and bonuses for recruiting new investors. However, the company did not generate enough returns, if any, to pay the promised monthly profits and recruitment bonuses, and eventually collapsed in 2019, causing millions of dollars in losses to investors.

After the collapse of AWS Mining, the Petions started NovaTech, and recruited investors with promises of high returns and generous recruitment bonuses. They targeted minority and religious communities, particularly Haitian communities, in prayer groups and WhatsApp group chats with advertisements in Haitian Creole and religious messages that appealed to their faith. The Petions falsely marketed NovaTech as a registered hedge fund broker, misrepresented that NovaTech was licensed to trade cryptocurrency in the U.S., advertised high profits from trading of approximately two to four percent per week, promoted recruitment bonuses, and promised that investors could withdraw their funds and profits at any time.

From August 2019 through April 2023, investors deposited over one billion dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency with NovaTech. However, less than $26 million was ever traded on NovaTech’s trading platform. When NovaTech collapsed in May 2023, tens of thousands of investors were unable to withdraw their cryptocurrency.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has settled claims against NovaTech’s top promoters for making false and misleading statements in the offer and sale of securities in the form of AWS Mining contracts and NovaTech’s trading packages, acting as unregistered brokers, and engaging in an illegal pyramid scheme. All four individuals are permanently banned from the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries, and will pay disgorgement to benefit victims in the following amounts:

The OAG also today filed an inquest asking the court to order the Petions to pay $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement, following a default judgment issued in August 2025, which also banned the Petions from the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries.

Attorney General James is a national leader in protecting New York investors and holding cryptocurrency companies accountable. In October 2026, Attorney General James secured an industry ban on a crypto CEO who defrauded investors. In April 2026, Attorney General James secured over $5 Million from crypto platform Uphold for promoting a fraudulent investment scheme perpetrated by Cred LLC. In July 2025, Attorney General James acted to stop a crypto scam targeting Russian-speaking New Yorkers. In March 2025, Galaxy Digital, a New York-based crypto firm, agreed to settle OAG’s claims that it fraudulently pumped the price of Luna tokens in a $200 million settlement. In January 2025, Attorney General James became the first regulator to provide notice of litigation by depositing a nonfungible token (NFT) into the wallets scammers used to steal the victims’ cryptocurrency.

This matter is being handled by Senior Enforcement Counsel Tanya Trakht, with assistance from Assistant Attorney General Dimitris Gizas, Principal Accountant Shalendra Ramadhin, and Legal Assistant Natalya Fadeyeva, all of the Investor Protection Bureau, and Senior Detective Investigator Brian Metz of the Investigations Division and Office Assistant Carine Lespinasse of the Consumer Frauds Bureau. The Investor Protection Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe and Deputy Bureau Chief Kenneth Haim and is a part of the Division for Economic Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Meghan Faux.

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