Crypto Scammers Who Used Prayer Groups to Lure Victims Must Pay $1.3 Billion, Says New York — SkimNews
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- New York Attorney General Letitia James filed to recover $1.37 billion from NovaTech founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion, who fled the U.S. before an August 2025 default judgment
- Cynthia and Eddy Petion operated NovaTech as a Ponzi scheme, losing $18.2 million of the $26 million sent to its trading provider while advertising 2%–4% weekly returns
- More than 11,000 New Yorkers invested in NovaTech, which targeted Haitian immigrant communities through prayer groups, WhatsApp, and religious messaging in Haitian Creole
- Four top promoters—Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, Ricardo Roy Sr., and James Corbett—agreed to pay nearly $6 million in victim restitution and are permanently banned from financial and crypto industries
- NovaTech investors deposited $1.16 billion in crypto via CoinPayments between 2019 and 2023, with Cynthia Petion as the sole authorized user of the platform’s wallet
- At least $134.5 million was transferred from NovaTech to wallets controlled by the Petions before the platform collapsed in 2023, leaving investors unable to withdraw funds
Why it matters: Over 11,000 New Yorkers lost savings in a scheme that exploited community trust, and while $6 million has been secured from promoters, the $1.37 billion sought from the fugitive founders faces collection challenges, leaving most victims unlikely to be fully compensated.
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