CoinDesk reports:

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to have the founder of the collapsed crypto exchange NovaTech pay nearly $1.4 billion. However, James said actually recovering that money could be another matter, as the couple has fled the United States.

This request stems from a default judgment issued in August 2025, following the Petion couple’s departure from the United States without responding to the state’s legal action. The judgment also prohibits them from continuing to operate in the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries.

James first sued NovaTech and AWS Mining in June 2024, accusing them of defrauding investors of over $1 billion. Two months later, the U.S. Securities and Exchange…