New York Attorney General Secures Nearly $6 Million From Crypto Pyramid Scheme: Four Promoters Banned for Life
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on October 22 that she had secured nearly $6 million for victims from a cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that targeted Haitian and other immigrant communities.
As a result of the lawsuit James filed in June 2024 against cryptocurrency trading company NovaTechFx (NovaTech) and cryptocurrency mining company AWS Mining Pty Ltd., four of the scheme's top promoters — Martin Zizi, Frantz Ciceron, Ricardo Roy Sr. and James Corbett — will pay $2.9 million, $2.05 million, $275,861 and $750,000, respectively, in disgorgement for the benefit of victims, and have been permanently banned from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries.
James is also asking the court to order NovaTech's founders, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, who fled the country, to pay $1.3 billion in damages and disgorgement, following a default judgment issued against them in August 2025 that also banned them from the industries.
More than 11,000 New Yorkers, including residents of New York City, Westchester, Long Island and Rockland and Orange counties, invested in the two companies and lost tens of millions of dollars, while victims worldwide numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The scammers recruited investors in prayer groups and WhatsApp group chats with advertisements in Haitian Creole and religious messages; AWS Mining promised monthly returns of 15 to 20 percent. From August 2019 through April 2023, investors deposited more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency with NovaTech, but less than $26 million was ever traded, and when NovaTech collapsed in May 2023, tens of thousands of investors were unable to withdraw their funds.
James said the scammers targeted immigrant and religious communities with the promise of a better life but instead robbed them of their life savings. (GSM, based on the New York Attorney General's Office release)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽约州总检察长 Letitia James 主持宣誓仪式（2023年）。图片：Joecento，CC0，来源 Wikimedia Commons
