GOP Congressman Chris Collins Arrested on Insider Trading Charges
Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican, was arrested Wednesday by the FBI and indicted on allegations of securities fraud.
According to the indictment , Collins passed nonpublic information about a tiny Australian biotech company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, at which he was a member of the board of directors to his son Cameron that was then used to make timely trades of stock. Cameron also gave that information to Stephen Zarsky, his fiancee’s father, the indictment says.
Prosecutors allege the trades were made prior to the release of clinical trial results for one of Innate’s drugs in development.
According to the indictment, Innate’s drug MIS416 was undergoing clinical trials in early 2017. They appeared promising at the time. But on June 22, 2017, researchers informed Innate’s CEO that the drug had failed the trial.
Innate’s CEO then informed board members, including Collins, of the trial failure. Prosecutors say Collins then told his son of the drug trial’s failure, prompting Cameron to sell his US shares of Innate the next morning. According to indictment, Cameron sold a little over 1.3 million shares of Innate between June 23 and June 26, the day the trial results became public.
In a statement following the news, attorneys for Collins said that they plan to “mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name.”
“It is notable that even the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single share of Innate Therapeutics stock,” the statement said.”We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated.”
