U.S. derivatives regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is turning to a veteran federal prosecutor as its next head of enforcement.
The CFTC named Ian McGinley, a former prosecutor from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, to take over from acting director Gretchen Lowe as its new director of enforcement.
“McGinley’s arrival supports the chairman’s continued focus on aggressively monitoring and policing commodity markets at a time of heightened stress and volatility, emerging digital threats to financial markets, including cryptocurrency frauds, cyber-enabled financial fraud, and cyberattacks,” the agency said in a release.
After 10 years at the U.S. attorney’s office, McGinley entered private practice in September 2021 as a partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP, focusing on criminal and regulatory matters.
Prior to that, he co-led the complex frauds and cyber crime unit at the at the U.S. attorney’s office, and served on its securities and commodities task force, leading a variety of white-collar crime prosecutions including cases involving market manipulation, insider trading, crypto fraud, bank fraud and cybercrime, the agency noted.