Cryptocurrency companies NovaTech and AWS Mining sued by New York Attorney General for fraud.
Cryptocurrency companies NovaTechFx (NovaTech) and AWS Mining Pty Ltd (AWS Mining) are being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for their involvement in illegal pyramid schemes that defrauded hundreds of people, thousands of investors, including more than 11,000 New Yorkers, worth more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency.
According to the prosecutor, these companies targeted immigrant communities, particularly Haitian New Yorkers, in prayer groups and through social media and WhatsApp group chats with fraudulent promises of high returns on investments, but did not never actually realized the promised benefits. In this sense, Attorney General James seeks to prohibit AWS Mining, NovaTech and its founders from doing business in New York and to obtain restitution and damages.
“More than 11,000 New Yorkers from New York, Westchester, Long Island and Rockland and Orange counties invested in NovaTech and AWS Mining and lost tens of millions of dollars,” says Attorney James. The lawsuit alleges that AWS Mining was a fraudulent scheme that purported to generate high returns for investors by mining cryptocurrencies, the process by which specialized computers verify cryptocurrency transactions and generate new cryptocurrencies.
Further, the lawsuit highlights that AWS Mining and its promoters, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, James Corbett, Martin Zizi and Frantz Ciceron, promised investors monthly returns of 15 to 20%, a return on investment of 200% in 15 months and bonuses for recruiting new investors. However, the company failed to generate enough returns to pay promised monthly profits and recruiting bonuses and ultimately collapsed in 2019, causing millions of dollars in losses to investors.
Furthermore, Letitia James informs that after the collapse of AWS Mining, Cynthia and Eddy Petion launched their own cryptocurrency company, NovaTech, and relied on recruiting new investors with promises of high returns and generous recruitment bonuses. They falsely represented NovaTech as a registered hedge fund broker, falsely stated that NovaTech was licensed to trade cryptocurrencies in the United States, announced high trading profits of around two to four percent per week, promised recruitment bonuses, and promised that investors would be able to withdraw their funds and profits at any time.
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