Bart Chilton

Bartholomew Hamilton Chilton (May 1, 1960 – April 27, 2019) was an American civil servant.

He was Commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2007 to 2014. In April 2014, he joined DLA Piper as a Senior Policy Advisor. He was the author of the investment fraud book, Ponzimonium: How Scam Artists Are Ripping Off America. Chilton was a vocal supporter of position limits in commodities markets. He exposed manipulation practices in commodities markets and went on record as wanting to prosecute violations of law, which he believed had taken place in the silver market.

Early life Chilton was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and grew up in Ogden Dunes, Indiana. His father and both grandfathers were engineers. His father, a mechanical engineer, patented a way to create a self-standing artificial Christmas tree. DuPont's Thomas H. Chilton Laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware, is named for his grandfather, a chemical engineer who worked there. Jess M. Bartholomew, Chilton's namesake, was an electrical engineer at the Joy Manufacturing Company in Michigan City, Indiana. His great-great-grandfather was William Parish Chilton and his great-great-uncle was Thomas Chilton, who both served in government.

After high school, Chilton worked at a steel mill for a year, arguing later that the experience convinced him that someone had to look out for "the little guy". and has, since joining the CFTC, worked for the implementation of position limits. Chilton had one of the senior investigators from the CFTC's enforcement division contact Maguire. and said he wanted to see prosecutions. Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee board member Adrian Douglas referred to Chilton "the modern-day equivalent of Eliot Ness".

On April 15, 2011, Chilton issued a statement against legislation to delay the financial regulatory reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act.

In July 2013, Chilton replaced outgoing Commissioner Jill Sommers as Chair of the Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC).

Post government career In 2014, shortly after leaving the CFTC, Chilton joined the lobbying firm DLA Piper, where as a senior policy advisor he worked with the Modern Markets Initiative, an advocacy group for the high-frequency trading Chilton had criticized while in office.

Death Chilton died from complications of pancreatic cancer on April 27, 2019, at a hospital in Washington, D.C.

Personal life Chilton was married to Sherry Daggett Chilton, and in his last years lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida. A distinctive figure in his political and media career, he sported shoulder-length blond hair and liked to wear cowboy boots.