CFTC Wins $9.2M Penalty and Lifetime Ban Against NOLA FX Founder

The CFTC said the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana has ordered Michael B. DePetrillo and his companies, Meteor LLC and NOLA FX Capital Management LLC, to pay a $9,211,492 civil monetary penalty for their roles in a fraudulent retail forex operation. The default judgment resolves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's civil case and permanently bars all three defendants from trading in CFTC-regulated markets or registering with the agency.

The penalty is in addition to $6,748,412 in restitution DePetrillo was ordered to pay victims when he was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2025. DePetrillo pleaded guilty in February 2025.

CFTC Pursues Other Forex and Crypto Fraud Cases

According to the Justice Department, DePetrillo collected approximately $9.2 million from around 55 investors over seven years. Investors were told their money would be pooled in the NOLA FX Fund and used to trade leveraged currency contracts. Instead, contributions from new investors helped pay earlier participants, while false account statements presented the fund as a profitable forex operation. The court found that the defendants misappropriated more than $3 million of participant funds, using the money for those payouts, DePetrillo's personal expenses and trading in his own accounts.

The CFTC has brought other cases this year involving investment pools presented as trading businesses. In August, it sued Goliath Ventures, alleging the firm took at least $397 million for cryptocurrency trading while issuing statements showing profits that did not exist. The following month, it filed a case against Cash FX Group, alleging the company collected more than $950 million for a purported forex trading pool, conducted little trading and used new deposits to pay earlier participants. Those figures remain allegations in the CFTC's lawsuits.