Article

Cynthia and Eddie Petion bilked more than 200,000 investors out of $650 million through a fake cryptocurrency trading scheme they ran from 2019 until May 2023.

The SEC filed suit against the couple on August 12th, along with six of their top promoters who helped hawk the fraudulent investment to desperate people seeking quick returns. The agency identified NovaTech FX, the scheme's vehicle, as a straightforward Ponzi operation dressed up in cryptocurrency and multi-level marketing language.

The mechanics were simple: NovaTech barely traded any investor money. When it did, it lost significant sums. The company had no other revenue source. It survived by pulling in fresh investor cash and recycling it to early participants and the promoters who recruited them.

The Petions siphoned the funds for themselves. Federal investigators traced at least $4.3 million in crypto assets flowing directly to accounts controlled by Cynthia Petion. Another $1.5 million went to Eddy Petion. A third bucket of approximately $35.2 million in investor assets went to accounts believed to belong to Eddy Petion. The rest funneled down to the promoter network as recruitment commissions and payouts to keep existing investors quiet.

The six promoters sued by the SEC—Martin Zizi, Dapilini Dunbar, James Corbett, Corrie Sampson, John Garofano, and Marsha Hadley—served as the scheme's recruiting machinery. They climbed NovaTech's pyramid ranks by assembling networks of "downline" investors beneath them. Many of those investors became recruiters themselves, expanding the pool further. For their work, the promoters pocketed substantial commissions.

The victims tilted heavily toward the Haitian-American community, a detail that speaks to how these schemes exploit tight-knit populations with promises tailored to their circumstances.

The structure—promising unrealistic returns on cryptocurrency trades while actually paying out earlier investors with money from new recruits—was textbook Ponzi. The SEC had flagged similar red flags back in August 2019 when independent reviewers published warnings about NovaTech. The Petions kept operating anyway.

What made this version particularly aggressive was the scale. Over 200,000 people across the United States and internationally got pulled in. The couple and their six lieutenants moved $650 million through wallets and accounts, leaving devastated investors scrambling to recover anything.

The lawsuits represent the SEC attempting to claw back assets and hold accountable not just the scheme's architects but the network of promoters who knew, or should have known, they were selling fiction. Whether the promoters believed their own pitch or understood precisely what they were doing remains a legal question. What's clear is they profited handsomely while regular people lost their savings.

🤖 Quick Answer

What was NovaTech FX and who operated it?

How much money did NovaTech FX defraud from investors?
NovaTech FX bilked more than 200,000 investors out of approximately $650 million. The scheme attracted individuals seeking quick returns by promising profitable cryptocurrency trading, but in reality it conducted minimal trading activity and lost significant sums on the trades it did execute.

How did the NovaTech FX Ponzi scheme operate?
NovaTech FX had no legitimate revenue source. The platform barely traded

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