New Cop on the Commodities Block: David Miller Outlines His Enforcement Priorities for the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement
Newly minted CFTC Enforcement Director, David Miller,[i] announced what the CFTC Enforcement Division’s new priorities will be under his watch at a speech given at NYU Law School earlier this week.[ii] Appointed on March 2, 2026, Miller, who is an alum of the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office Securities and Commodities Unit, also dedicated a portion of his public service to anti-terrorism prosecutions at Main Justice in Washington, D.C. In addition, Miller comes to his new role after several years in private practice.
Promising that “[u]nder Chairman Selig’s leadership, our enforcement program will relentlessly focus on serious violations, especially fraud and market manipulation,” Miller identified five enforcement priorities for the CFTC:
· Insider Trading, including in prediction markets;
· Market Manipulation, particularly in the energy markets;
· Market Abuse and Disruptive Trading;
· Retail Fraud, such as Ponzi schemes; and
· Willful violations of the Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Know-Your-Customer (“KYC”) laws and rules.
Miller cautioned those who may harbor the misimpression that insider trading in prediction markets is permissible, even encouraged. “Not so,” he said. Pointing to Section 6(c)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and CFTC Rule 180.1,[iii] Miller explained that the judicially created misappropriation theory of insider trading under the federal securities laws[iv] has been incorporated into the CEA and CFTC regulations to apply to trading in commodity markets. In addition, Miller mentioned the so-called “Eddie Murphy Rule,” CEA Section 4c(a)(4),[v] which prohibits government employees from trading on confidential government information.
Miller noted that market manipulation in energy markets is particularly and uniquely harmful given the inelastic demand for many energy products, saying “you can’t drive a car on air.” For would be manipulators tempted to take advantage of the recent high prices and volatility caused by the Administration’s war with Iran, Miller warned CFTC would remain focused on the energy markets. He vowed: “We will prosecute wrongdoing in this area.”
On spoofing and other disruptive trading practices, Miller observed “[f]unctioning markets provide price transparency and the fairest prices, and there are rules to make sure markets function.” Disruptive practices, like spoofing, “reduces efficiency, distorts price signals, and can raise prices.”
With regard to retail fraud, Miller explained that the Division has a large task force working to combat the recent innovations of fraudsters preying on the general public through pig-butchering, impersonation frauds, phishing attacks and commodity pool Ponzi schemes. “Sadly, there are always fraudsters committing the same old frauds using new techniques and new tools.”
In discussing his fifth priority to prosecute willful failures to follow AML/KYC laws and rules, Miller was careful to emphasize the “willful” part of that. “We are not prioritizing technical violations, but rather those who willfully decide to break these essential laws.”
In addition to his five priorities, Miller foreshadowed the upcoming release of a new Staff Advisory on Cooperation, which will rescind and replace the advisory released by the Enforcement Division in February 2025. Miller explained that under the new advisory, the Division will be further incentivizing cooperation by simplifying the Division’s approach to “hopefully . . . be fairer to the parties with which we interact.” Specifically, Miller summarized four key areas the new advisory will address (i) declinations, (ii) the assessment of self-reports, (iii) the evaluation of cooperation, and (iv) completeness of remediation. More on the new staff advisory when it is released in full.
It will be interesting to see how the CFTC Division of Enforcement does under Miller’s leadership going forward – especially on a number of his identified priorities. The tumult of the first year of this Administration has seen a drastic, twenty-five percent reduction in enforcement staff, with the loss of some of the Division’s most experienced staff members.[vi] It is curious that Director Miller will be focused on willful AML/KYC violations when the President has pardoned[vii] one of the agency’s highest profile defendants[viii] who pled guilty to criminal violations of willful AML/KYC violations which enabled terrorists, drug traffickers and child abusers to launder millions of dollars.[ix] It is also interesting that Director Miller mentioned the Eddie Murphy rule. It is apparent that government insiders and their tippees have been trading on material, nonpublic information.[x] Will this one-man “Commission” have the independence to investigate and prosecute without fear or favor this wanton abuse of government trust wherever the evidence leads? Time will tell.
[i] Press Release, CFTC Chairman Selig Announces David I. Miller as Director of Enforcement (CFTC March 2, 2026) available at https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9187-26
[ii] D. Miller, Remarks at NYU Law School – CFTC Enforcement Priorities, Insider Trading in the Prediction Markets, and Cooperation with the CFTC (Mar. 31, 2026) available at https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opamiller1
[iii] 7 U.S.C. § 9(1), 17 C.F.R. § 180.1.
[iv] Securities Exchange Act Section 10(b) and SEC Rule 10b-5; 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5.
[v] 7 U.S.C. § 6c(a)(4).
[vi] Letter from Senators Richard Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock & Adam Schiff to Michael Selig (Feb. 26, 2026) available at https://www.durbin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2026226lettertocftcdivisionofenforcementstaffingfinalwsignatures.pdf
[vii] L. Murti, Pardoned Binance founder Zhao says his business relationship with the Trumps was ‘misconstrued’ (CNBC Jan. 23, 2026) available at https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/23/pardon-binance-founder-cz-trump.html
[viii]Press Release, Federal Court Enters Order Against Binance and Former CEO, Zhao, Concluding CFTC Enforcement Action: Zhao to Pay $150 Million and Binance to Pay $2.7 Billion to CFTC (CFTC Dec. 18, 2023) available at https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8837-23
[ix] Press Release, Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution (DOJ Nov. 21, 2023) available at https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution
[x] D. Gillison, S. Iqbal Ahmed & A. Sen, Lucrative bets that anticipated Trump's policy surprises warrant scrutiny, experts say (Reuters March 29, 2026) available at https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/lucrative-bets-that-anticipated-trumps-policy-surprises-warrant-scrutiny-experts-2026-03-29/
