Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
NEW ORLEANS, LA – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today that MICHAEL BRIAN DEPETRILLO, (“DEPETRILLO”), age 43, from New Orleans, was charged, on January 27, 2025, in a bill of information with violating Title 7, United States Code, Section 13(a), the Commodity Exchange Act.
According to the bill of information, DEPETRILLO was not properly registered as a Commodity Pool Operator (“CPO”) or an Associated Person (“AP”) of a CPO with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”). DEPETRILLO, through various companies including, Meteor, LLC; NOLA FX Capital Management, LLC; ELC Enterprise Solutions, LLC; and Argosapolis, LLC, acted as a CPO and AP of a CPO and embezzled client funds in violation of federal law. DEPETRILLO, while acting as an AP of unregistered CPOs, represented to victim investors that their funds would be pooled and invested in the NOLA FX FUND, that would be used to trade foreign currency pairs on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis (“retail forex”).
DEPETRILLO told investors that pooling their funds would be beneficial to them. DEPETRILLO further represented to certain investors, that either METEOR or NOLA FX CAPITAL managed the NOLA FX FUND. In at least one representation, however, DEPETRILLO identified “NOLA FX Capital,” not the NOLA FX FUND, as the pooled investment vehicle. DEPETRILLO lured investors by claiming he was investing their funds by trading in the foreign currency exchange, gold futures options, stocks, and cryptocurrency. Instead of trading as promised, DEPETRILLO misappropriated pool funds. DEPETRILLO then used these misappropriated pool funds to: (1) make lulling payments to existing pool participants; (2) pay his personal expenses, such as rent, private air travel, and online gambling; and (3) trade in his personal trading accounts. To conceal DEPETRILLO’s misappropriation, he created and issued fictitious account statements in the names NOLA FX FUND and NOLA FX CAPITAL. The fictitious account statements purported to show that: (1) DEPETRILLO had traded forex using pool participant funds, and (2) the NOLA FX FUND and NOLA FX CAPITAL had achieved significant trading returns for pool participants because of his profitable forex trading. In fact, DEPETRILLO never deposited pool participant funds into trading accounts belonging to NOLA FX FUND or NOLA FX CAPITAL, and he never achieved the trading returns represented on the false account statements. DEPETRILLO also did not set up the forex pool in the manner required by the regulations, did not receive pool participant funds in the name of the forex pool, and commingled pool participant funds with his own funds. DEPETRILLO took in approximately $9.2 million in investor funds from approximately 60 victim investors during a seven-year period.
If convicted, DEPETRILLO faces up to ten (10) years imprisonment, up to three (3) years of supervised release, up to a $1,000,000.00 fine, plus the amount of any proceeds, and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee.
U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans stated that a bill of information is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). The FBI is seeking information that may help identify potential victims of DEPETRILLO’s fraudulent scheme. FBI encourages the public to report any information to http://fbi.gov/depetrillovictims.
The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Kathryn McHugh of the Financial Crimes Unit and Brian M. Klebba, Chief of the Financial Crimes Unit.