One thing seems certain: David Meister's new job won't be boring.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has appointed the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom white collar partner as director of enforcement.
Meister joins the 600-person agency in the midst of its transformation from a sleepy backwater to key regulator. As part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which was signed into law in July, the CFTC must write rules in 30 major areas, including the first-ever regulation of the $615 trillion market for over-the-counter derivatives.
For the enforcement division, which employs about 170 people, Dodd-Frank provides new authority to go after fraudulent and manipulative behavior, and new provisions to reward whistleblowers.
Meister said in a statement that he was “pleased to be joining the CFTC at this critical time in the agency's history.” He added that he was “absolutely committed to working with the impressive enforcement division and other CFTC staff to find and prosecute those who perpetrate fraud, manipulation and other abusive practices in the futures and swap markets.”
A federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York from 1991 to 1994, Meister was a member of the U.S. Attorney's Office Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, where he handled criminal cases involving market manipulation; insider trading; bank, securities and commodities fraud; accounting irregularities, obstruction of justice and other federal criminal violations.
He moved to Skadden from Clifford Chance in December 2008.
In recent years, the CFTC’s enforcement division has focused on commodity pool frauds, retail foreign currency, or forex, fraud and Ponzi schemes In FY 2010, the division filed 57 actions - 14% more than in FY 2009 and 42% more than in FY 2008 and opened 419 investigations.
Former enforcement division director Gregory Mocek left in July 2008 to join McDermott, Will & Emery. Since then, Stephen Obie served as acting director, followed by Vincent McGonagle.
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