NovaTech, founders accused in $1 billion cryptocurrency Ponzi that targeted Haitians

NEW YORK—One NovaTech founder, Eddy Petion, pretended to learn on live video that a fire had broken out in a mine in Paraguay. Another, Cynthia Petion, falsely claimed the FBI had given them a 700-page report showing their legitimacy. Using the title “Reverend CEO,” Cynthia Petion also spoke about the mostly Haitian faithful in her cryptocurrency scheme as “a cult” willing to believe anything to become millionaires.

“When asked where the money is going…keep it vague,” Cynthia Petion is recorded as saying. “They have no idea where that payment processor is sending it. You can be funding a housing project, buying a new car, or filling your swimming pool with bitcoin to swim in.”

After years of such behavior, on June 6, authorities officially charged the couple long-rumored to be defrauding Haitians through their cryptocurrency investment platform, NovaTechFX. New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office filed the lawsuit after an investigation revealed that over four years, NovaTech allegedly bilked at least 11,000 New York-based investors among hundreds of thousands worldwide, facilitated more than $1 billion worth in cryptocurrency transactions and only traded about $26 million.

Accused are Nova Tech; Cynthia Petion, chief executive officer, and Eddy Petion, chief operating officer; and AWS Mining primarily. Others named in the suit include top promoters and recruiters James Corbett, Martin Zizi and Frantz Ciceron; and several companies linked to the group — NovaTech Advisors, NovaPay, Kings Multi Services Agency, Trinity of Success and Positive Vision Marketing.

“Thousands of New Yorkers were falsely promised better lives if they simply trusted NovaTech and AWS Mining with their money, but it was all a lie,” James said in a press release. “They targeted minority communities, Haitians in particular, in prayer groups and WhatsApp group chats with advertisements in Creole, and religious messages that appealed to their faith.”

The announcement sent new ripples Monday through a Haitian community still processing the EminiFX crypto fraud led by Eddy Alexandre that defrauded at least 25,000 investors of more than $250 million. He too used the faith community and Creole-language spaces to recruit investors into what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.

“People should not be preying on our community,” said Senior Pastor Sam Nicolas of Evangelical Crusade Christian Church in Brooklyn. “They should be praying for our community.

How the NovaTech scheme worked

In the NovaTech lawsuit, prosecutors say, the Petions first worked through AWS Mining, where they were top recruiters. The Australia-based company, which went defunct in 2019, promised high returns for investors by “mining” cryptocurrency, a process by which specialized computers verify transactions in cryptocurrency and generate new cryptocurrency. 

When AWS Mining collapsed, the Petions then opened NovaTechFx, claiming falsely that it was a hedge fund broker. They and their promoters also kept using the AWS Mining name, this time falsely telling people it was a real mining company that extracts minerals from the earth as a source of their revenue. The foreign exchange (FX) and cryptocurrency trades were others streams of incomes, they said.

Corbett, Zizi and Ciceron allegedly helped the Petions recruit thousands, including Haitians around New York and New Jersey, through numerous presentations on Zoom, YouTube videos, WhatsApp and Telegram group chats, emails and in-person meetings to persuade their networks in the community. 

Ciceron, for example, made appearances on a weekly segment he had on the Haiti Premiere Classe TV program in 2018 and 2019. Corbett and Zizi, who went by “Pastor Bob” and “Dr. Zizi,” respectively, often held prayer groups and so-called “opportunity calls” and “university classes” in English and Creole. The Petions also held at least one event at their home in West Islip, N.Y., and made presentations elsewhere in the area.

Altogether, the accused made a slew of false promises,  including 2% to 4% in weekly profits, 15% to 20% in monthly returns, 200% returns on investments within 15 months and bonuses for recruiting new investors. In reality, neither company ever generated enough returns to pay the promised profits and bonuses, the attorney general said. When NovaTech said it paid weekly trading profits, the funds actually came from other investors’ money, the prosecutors said.

Even after markets plunged in spring 2022, the legal complaint alleges, the Petions kept up the charade of providing high returns weekly. In private, they withdrew millions from the NovaTech accounts, secretly sold their house in Florida and fled to Panama in June 2022. 

As investors demanded to cash out their crypto accounts, NovaTech first came up with elaborate lies to cover up their fraud. They extolled “faith over fear” as a mentality to keep investors from making withdrawals. They also told wild tales such as the FBI report that Cynthia Petion said she burned after reading and the Paraguay mine farm fire. In that ruse to get out of supposed mining contracts, prosecutors say, Eddy Petion pretended to receive a phone call, while on a YouTube show, telling him one of their mining farms had caught on fire. 

Allegedly, Cynthia Petion told Zizi to flee the country too, writing, ‘they can’t serve you if they can’t find you…lol.’

Illegal activity long suspected  

Among at least 200,000 investors who joined until NovaTech collapsed in May 2023 are the 11,000 across New York City, Westchester, Long Island and Rockland and Orange counties.

“I preach about pyramid scams all the time,” Nicolas said, adding that he has made presentation warning congregants. “I tell them, ‘magouyè se magouyè [scammers are scammers].”

Yet, people still join get-rich-quick schemes. From airline ownership to real estate flips, fake nursing diplomas to the scam du jour, cryptocurrency, such affinity schemes flourish through trusted networks such as prayer groups.

When the EminiFX case broke, Novatech was among a few platforms that commenters said law enforcement should investigate. Even in cryptocurrency circles,  its legitimacy was questioned. 

Renold Julien, executive director of Konbit Neg Lakay, the Haitian/American Community Center of Rockland County, told The Haitian Times on Monday that these scams have gone on for too long in the community. Julien said one Haitian couple he met told him they had invested $69,000 in Novatech they had been saving to buy a house.

“The dude, him and his wife, are crying,” Julien said. “Here in Rockland County, too many people were taken advantage of. It’s all they have after working two, three, four jobs.

“I’m glad she [James] decided to follow the case,” he added. “This is exactly what Haitians need to understand. The more organized we are, the more results we can have for our people.”

Investors disparaged in private as “cult”

One notable aspect of the Novatech narrative that prosecutors laid out in the complaint is the brazen attitude of the principal operators in allegedly disparaging Novatech investors for their lack of knowledge in financial matters. While calling their company a way to raise financial status, in private, the accused made fun of the aspiring investors

Cynthia Petion rebranded herself as “Reverend CEO,” called herself and her husband “the visionaries” and they proclaimed that NovaTech was “God’s vision.” In private chats with Zizi, she called herself the “Zookeeper,” her investors “a cult,” and rejected Zizi’s suggestion that NovaTech was like a country club.

“‘In a club people know what they are signing up for” while in NovaTech “people join and follow mindlessly… They don’t think. They just agree with everything you say,’” Mrs. Petion is quoted as saying.

And, while advertising “their schemes as a train to “financial freedom” and “freedom from the plantation,” the lawsuit dates, Cynthia Petion said ‘[it’s] never the ones who grew up rich who invest in these programs.’

Zizi also once wrote to Cynthia Petion, “Some people will never see the vision you see in NovaTech… Focus and recruit the visionaries.”

Cynthia Petion then allegedly replied, “They see it when you drive by in that Bentley.”

The current whereabouts of the accused were not immediately clear, though the Petions may be living in Panama. 

A message sent through the NovatechFX site Monday was not immediately returned. A phone number listed online for Ciceron was disconnected.

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