The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on 21 October that the federal court for the Eastern District of Louisiana had entered a civil default judgment against Michael B. DePetrillo, Meteor LLC and NOLA FX Capital Management LLC. The court found that the defendants solicited money for purported retail-forex trading, misrepresented returns and issued false account statements. Its 30 September order makes the three jointly liable for a $9,211,492.44 civil monetary penalty and imposes permanent trading and registration bans. The ruling establishes civil liability through a default judgment, not a contested jury trial. An order to pay is not evidence that money has been collected or that investors have been made whole.
The fund pitch and the cash trail
In its 2024 complaint, the CFTC alleged that participant funds were to be pooled in the NOLA FX Fund for leveraged currency trading. Instead, money was used to pay earlier participants, cover DePetrillo's personal expenses and trade in his personal account. The court's September 2026 reasons, accepting well-pleaded facts in the default procedure and considering the evidence submitted, found $3,070,497.48 was misappropriated. Its separate judgment sets out the penalty and injunctions.
A separate Justice Department criminal account says DePetrillo took in approximately $9.2 million from roughly 55 investors over seven years. The money was not placed in trading accounts belonging to the fund or NOLA FX Capital as promised, while fabricated statements showed supposed forex trading and profits. That approximately $9.2 million is the gross investor intake described in the criminal case—not the civil penalty, a net-loss calculation or proof of actual positions in forex, gold, stocks or crypto.
Three numbers that must not be added together
The $3,070,497.48 figure is the civil court's finding on misappropriation. The $9,211,492.44 civil penalty equals three times the monetary gain the court calculated; it is a sanction payable under the CFTC order, not an investor-restitution award. In the separate criminal case, DePetrillo pleaded guilty in February 2025 and was sentenced in July to nine years in prison and $6,748,412.79 in restitution. Restitution ordered is not restitution paid. The cited court order, CFTC announcement and DOJ release do not give a final recovery or distribution figure, so none can support a claimed repayment rate.
Why the case matters beyond the defendants
The control failure was the distance between what an account statement displayed and where client money actually went. Anyone assessing a pooled trading arrangement should identify the contracting and receiving entities, check the operator's required registration, and seek independently reconcilable custody, bank and trade records. Registration or a positive-looking statement alone is not a guarantee. Brokers, payment providers and technology partners should likewise know who owns the accounts and who can substantiate balances and executions; a front-end report is not proof of a cash trail.
TraderVote view
This is no longer merely a complaint or investigation: the sequence runs from the 2024 civil filing and the 2025 criminal plea and sentence to the 30 September 2026 civil default judgment, publicised on 21 October. The next measurable questions are enforcement of the bans, collection of the civil penalty and actual progress on criminal restitution. Without official recovery data, assigning a final investor-loss or repayment figure would be speculation.
Sources: [CFTC release, 21 October 2026](https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9313-26); US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, [default judgment](https://www.cftc.gov/media/14776/ENF_DePetrilloDefaultJudgement093026/download) and [order and reasons](https://www.cftc.gov/media/14781/ENF_DePetrilloOrderReasons093026/download), 30 September 2026; [US Department of Justice release, 29 July 2025](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edla/pr/former-new-orleans-attorney-sentenced-nine-years-prison-commodity-exchange-act-0); [CFTC complaint announcement, 28 October 2024](https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9003-24). Accessed 22 October 2026, Los Angeles time. Cover: 2020 archival courthouse photograph by Tony Webster via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hale_Boggs_Federal_Building_-_Eastern_District_of_Louisiana_Courthouse,_New_Orleans.jpg), [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/); cropped and resized; not a photograph of proceedings in this case.
This article is not investment advice.
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