Release Number 5517-08

Release: 5517-08
For Release: July 9, 2008

CFTC Announces Appointment of Stephen J. Obie as Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) announced today the appointment of Stephen J. Obie as Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement, effective immediately. Obie is currently the Regional Counsel/Associate Director and Regional Administrator for the CFTC’s New York Office.

“In his time with the Commission, Steve Obie has worked on a broad range of investigations and enforcement actions involving our energy markets, including those brought against Enron, Dynegy Marketing and Trade, American Electric Power Company, Inc., The Williams Companies, and Amaranth,” said CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken. “He has a big role to fill and I am confident he is up to the challenge. I appreciate his service and look forward to continuing to work with him in this new capacity.”

Obie joined the Commission in 1998 as a Senior Trial Attorney in the New York Office of the Division of Enforcement. Obie received his law degree, cum laude, in 1991 from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Drew University. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Jerome F. Hanifin of the NYS Court of Claims and at the Office of the Staff Attorneys for the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Prior to joining the CFTC in 1998, Obie was a litigator at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. Obie was an associate adjunct faculty member at Brooklyn Law School for the Fall 2007 semester, teaching an upper class seminar entitled “Trading Derivatives.”

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Dennis Holden
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Last Updated: July 9, 2008