tl;dr
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against two purported crypto companies and their top promoters, a married couple, for allegedly operating two consecutive pyramid schemes that targeted Haitian immigrants in the U.S. The schemes, AWS Mining and NovaTechFX, allegedly bilked ...
New York Attorney General Letitia James Files Suit Against AWS Mining and NovaTechFX New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against two purported crypto companies and their top promoters, a married couple, for allegedly operating two consecutive pyramid schemes that targeted Haitian immigrants in the U.S. The schemes, AWS Mining and NovaTechFX, allegedly bilked investors out of more than $1 billion. The suit accuses the companies and promoters of violating New York's anti-fraud law and seeks damages and restitution for the victims, as well as permanent enjoinments preventing the Defendants from participating in another investment scheme. There are no current criminal charges against the Petions or the other promoters.
According to the complaint filed Thursday, the two schemes – AWS Mining and NovaTechFX – preyed on Creole-speaking church-goers via WhatsApp group chats, bilking investors out of more than $1 billion. The first alleged scheme, an Australian company called AWS Mining, operated from 2017 until its collapse in 2019 and guaranteed investors a 200% return on their investment from crypto mining within 13-15 months. AWS Mining rewarded its promoters – including a Panama-based married couple originally from Florida, Cynthia and Eddy Petion – by giving them a 10% cut of the money invested by the new investors they recruited to the alleged scheme, along with bonuses and ceremonial titles. The Petions were two of AWS Mining’s top promoters – each recruiting at least 200,000 investors to their “downline” – earning them both the ceremonial title of “President,” the suit alleged.
After AWS Mining went bust in April 2019, the couple decided to start a new company together, NovaTechFX, with Cynthia serving as CEO and Eddy as COO. NovaTech claimed to be a crypto and foreign exchange trading platform that advertised up to 4% returns per week. Between August 2019 and April 2023, NovaTech’s investors deposited over $1 billion in the scheme, according to the complaint. In June 2022, shortly before the alleged scheme began to draw the attention of state securities regulators, the Petions secretly sold their house in Florida and moved to Panama. By December 2022, many of NovaTech’s investors were requesting to withdraw their funds from the platform. In February 2023, the company halted withdrawals, and in May it shut down, failing to return “tens of thousands” of investors’ deposits and leaving them with “hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.”
According to the suit, the Petions and their employees largely preyed on Haitian immigrants in religious communities. Cynthia Petion began calling herself “the Reverend CEO” after founding NovaTech, and claimed that God sent her a “vision” of the company while she was brushing her teeth. The Petions and their promoters regularly hosted prayer groups where they advertised the alleged scheme. NovaTech’s founders and promoters marketed the scheme to investors as a path to financial success, using religious references and promises of wealth, despite deriding their investors in private.
James has accused AWS Mining, NovaTech, the Petions and the other named promoters of violating the Martin Act, New York’s strict anti-fraud law, as well as repeated and persistent fraud and illegality. The suit is seeking damages and restitution for the victims, as well as permanent enjoinments preventing the Defendants from participating in another investment scheme. The NYAG’s suit follows a class action lawsuit filed against NovaTech and Cynthia Petion earlier this year. There are not currently any criminal charges against the Petions or the other promoters.
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Business Segment: Manufacturing - Steel Works, Blast Furnaces & Rolling Mills (Coke Ovens)
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