Court orders Louisiana forex scheme operator and his firms to pay a penalty of over $9 million
A federal court has entered a default judgment in a CFTC case against Michael B. DePetrillo, Meteor LLC and NOLA FX Capital Management LLC, finding they took more than $3 million from forex participants.
A US federal court in 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 a fraudulent retail forex scheme, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on 21 October 2026.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana entered a default judgment against the three defendants. It resolves all the claims in the complaint the CFTC filed in 2024.
What the court found
According to the CFTC, the court found that the defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated more than $3 million from participants. They falsely said that participants’ money would be used to trade retail forex, misrepresented how profitable trading with them was, and sent out false account statements to hide what they were doing.
The court also found that participants’ money was used to pay other participants in a way the CFTC describes as akin to a Ponzi scheme, to cover DePetrillo’s personal expenses and to trade in his personal account.
Besides the penalty, the order permanently bars the defendants from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, and imposes permanent trading and registration bans.
The criminal case
In a related criminal case, DePetrillo pleaded guilty on 18 February 2025 to violating the Commodity Exchange Act over the same conduct. On 23 July 2025 he was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $6,748,412 in restitution. The CFTC thanked the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the FBI’s New Orleans Division for their help.
What it means for traders
The pattern the court described is common in forex fraud cases: money collected for trading that is never traded as promised, account statements that show profits that don’t exist, and early participants paid with later participants’ money. Before handing money to anyone offering to trade forex on your behalf, check that they are registered and who actually holds the funds. The CFTC’s own advice on this is in our republished alert, eight things to know before trading forex.
Markets: Forex
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