New York Wants $1.3B From Crypto Founders Who Fled

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on October 22 that the state is seeking $1.367 billion from Cynthia and Eddy Petion and their NovaTech companies, including $1.134 billion in disgorgement, the surrender of fraud proceeds, and $232 million in interest. The Petions, who ran NovaTech, did not respond to the state’s June 2024 lawsuit; an August 2025 default judgment found them liable and barred them from promoting or selling securities, commodities or cryptocurrencies in New York. The attorney general says the couple fled. The state says investors deposited $1.16 billion from 2019 to 2023, but only about $26 million reached a trading platform and $18.2 million of that was lost; advertised weekly returns of 2% to 4% were fabricated.