Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced that Michael Brian DePetrillo, 43, from New Orleans, has pled guilty to violating the Commodity Exchange Act on February 18, 2025. DePetrillo faces a potential sentence of up to ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $1 million plus any proceeds, and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee.

Court documents reveal that DePetrillo was not properly registered as a Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) or an Associated Person (AP) with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Through companies such as Meteor, LLC; NOLA FX Capital Management, LLC; ELC Enterprise Solutions, LLC; and Argosapolis, LLC, he acted as a CPO and AP and embezzled client funds.

DePetrillo assured investors that their pooled funds would be invested in the NOLA FX Fund for trading foreign currency pairs. He claimed either Meteor or NOLA FX Capital managed this fund. However, he misappropriated the pool funds instead of investing them as promised.

The misappropriated funds were used by DePetrillo for personal expenses including approximately $3.7 million paid out as returns to prior investors, about $575,000 on his own investments, around $425,000 on rent payments, roughly $200,000 on private air travel, and approximately $300,000 on online gambling.

To hide his actions, DePetrillo created fictitious account statements under the names NOLA FX Fund and NOLA FX Capital showing false profitable trading returns. In reality, no investor funds were deposited into trading accounts nor were any profits achieved as reported in those statements.

Throughout a seven-year period, DePetrillo collected around $9.2 million from about 55 victim investors without setting up the forex pool correctly or maintaining separate accounts for participant funds.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 25, 2025 before United States District Judge Jay C. Zainey.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the case and encourages anyone with information about potential victims to report via http://fbi.gov/depetrillovictims.

Assistant United States Attorneys Kathryn McHugh and Brian M. Klebba are prosecuting the case.