Clifford Histed

Cliff Histed is a Chambers-ranked litigator and investigator who represents companies and individuals operating in heavily regulated industries, inside and outside the United States, including in the areas of financial markets and healthcare, in criminal and regulatory proceedings, and represents clients in litigation and at trial.

Cliff is a former supervisory Assistant US Attorney, supervisory enforcement lawyer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Assistant Illinois Attorney General, and special agent with a federal Inspector General's Office. He has experience investigating, prosecuting, and defending matters in the securities markets, energy, agricultural, metals, and financial futures markets, prediction markets, and healthcare. He has tried 27 criminal and civil cases in federal and state courts and has handled eleven matters before the Second and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Cliff has conducted or supervised hundreds of investigations and prosecutions, including those involving bribery, insider trading, price manipulation, wash trading, embezzlement and internal fraud, and trade secret theft. Many of these investigations involved parallel proceedings brought by federal regulatory agencies, futures exchanges, bankruptcy trustees, or private litigants. As a prosecutor, Cliff:

Supervised the investigation and indictment of an individual in the first case to charge the disruptive trading practice known as “spoofing” as a crime.

Prosecuted and tried the former CEO of Sentinel Management Group, Inc., a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant and SEC-registered Investment Advisor, who was convicted of defrauding customers by using their funds to trade in risky investments and concealing material facts from them.

As defense counsel, in many cases Cliff has persuaded the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission not to file charges against his clients.

Cliff speaks and writes frequently on the topic of futures and securities trading, and on regulation of cryptocurrencies. Notable publications that have quoted him include Bloomberg News, Chicago Lawyer, Crain's Chicago Business, Law360, Institutional Investor, Forbes, Fortune, New York Times, and Reuters.

Cliff has a very active pro bono practice and has provided legal services to the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission since 2016. He is a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois which provides representation to indigent clients charged with federal criminal offenses. In 2023, the Public Interest Law Initiative presented Cliff with the Distinguished Public Servant Award.

American Bar Association

Business Law Section—Derivatives and Futures Law/White Collar Crime Committees

Criminal Justice Section—Computer Crime, Intellectual Property, and Trade Secrets/White Collar Crime Committees

Federal Bar Association, Chicago Chapter (Member, Board of Directors)

Chicago Bar Association

Futures Industry Association

Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

Blockchain Lawyers Forum

“Section 2. Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulation, “Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues,” American Bar Association Derivatives and Futures Law Committee, Innovative Digital Products and Processes Subcommittee, Jurisdiction Working Group, September 2025. Co-authored this same section in 2019 and 2020 editions.

“CME Group Clarifies and Emphasizes the Duty to Supervise Trading on its Markets,” Market Screener, 12 August 2024

"Is a Futures Order an 'Implied Representation' to the Market?," Trade Talk Blog, May 2021

"CFTC Regulatory and Enforcement Report: 2020 Activity and Outlook," The Investment Lawyer, March 2021

Co-Author, “Chapter-10 - Government-Investigations of Healthcare Providers,” Washington Health Law Manual – Fourth Edition (Washington State Society of Health Care Attorneys), 2021

“Section 2. Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulation, Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues,” American Bar Association Derivatives and Futures Law Committee, Innovative Digital Products and Processes Subcommittee, Jurisdiction Working Group, December 2020

“CFTC Regulatory and Enforcement Report: 2019 Activity and Outlook,” The Investment Lawyer, January 2020

How To Authenticate Social Media Evidence In Court, Law360, 28 June 2019

“Breaking Down The 2nd Criminal Spoofing Trial: Part 2,” Law360, 12 June 2018

“Breaking Down The 2nd Criminal Spoofing Trial: Part 1,” Law360, 11 June 2018

“The Spoofing Statute Is Here To Stay,” Law360, 11 August 2017

“Spoofing Sentence Sends Clear Enforcement Message,” Law360, 13 July 2016

“A Look At The 1st Criminal 'Spoofing' Prosecution: Part 2,” Law360, 21 April 2015

“A Look At The 1st Criminal 'Spoofing' Prosecution: Part 1,” Law360, 20 April 2015

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

J.D.

1995

University of Illinois at Chicago (Criminal Justice)

M.A.

1995

University of Illinois at Chicago

B.A.

1988