CFTC Slaps $9.2 Million Fine and Lifetime Ban on NOLA FX Founder

A Ponzi-style forex scheme has left its organiser facing nearly $16 million in court-ordered payments.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana 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 participation in the fraudulent retail forex operation.

That comes on top of the $6,748,412 in restitution DePetrillo was ordered to pay victims when he received a nine-year prison sentence in July 2025.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the default judgment resolves its civil case. It also permanently bars the three defendants from trading in CFTC-regulated markets or registering with the agency.

Fake Forex Profits Concealed Diverted Funds

The operation used a familiar Ponzi-style mechanism behind a forex-trading pitch. DePetrillo and his companies told investors they would pool their money in the NOLA FX Fund and use it 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.

According to the Justice Department, DePetrillo collected approximately $9.2 million from around 55 investors over seven years. In the civil case, the court found that the defendants had misappropriated more than $3 million of participant funds, using the money for those payouts, DePetrillo’s personal expenses and trading in his own accounts.

DePetrillo pleaded guilty in February 2025. At his sentencing, the court imposed the nine-year prison term and ordered him to pay $6,748,412 in restitution to victims.

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CFTC Pursues Other Forex and Crypto Fraud Cases

The DePetrillo judgment is one of several CFTC actions this year involving investment pools presented as trading businesses.

In August, the regulator sued Goliath Ventures, alleging that it took at least $397 million for cryptocurrency trading while issuing statements showing profits that did not exist.

The following month, the CFTC brought a case against Cash FX Group. It alleged that the company collected more than $950 million for a purported forex trading pool, conducted little trading and used new deposits to pay earlier participants.

The Goliath and Cash FX figures remain allegations in the CFTC’s lawsuits. DePetrillo’s case has reached a different stage: a criminal sentence and restitution order were already in place, and the new judgment closes the regulator’s civil action.