New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins arrested on insider trading charges

New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins arrested on insider trading charges

Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. was arrested Wednesday morning on federal insider trading charges, law enforcement officials said.

An indictment obtained from a federal grand jury relates to Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics, on which Collins served as a board member.

The indictment alleges Collins scrambled to call his son from the White House lawn and tell him non-public information about a failed drug trial in which they both owned shares.

Collins' son, Cameron Collins, as well as the father of his fiancee, Stephen Zarsky, were also charged, according to the court filing.

The Republican representative from upstate New York, President Donald Trump's earliest backer in Congress, felt an almost immediate political fallout in the wake of the charges.

In June 2017, according to the indictment, Collins passed nonpublic information about Innate's drug trial results to his son in order to help him "make timely trades in Innate stock and tip others."

His son then traded on that inside information and passed it to Zarsky, along with numerous unnamed co-conspirators, "so that they could utilize the information for the same purpose," according to the indictment.

Zarsky, too, allegedly traded on the inside knowledge and passed it along to yet more unnamed co-conspirators.

In total, the three defendants avoided "over $768,000 in losses that they would have otherwise incurred" had they sold their stock after the information was made public, according to the indictment.

Who says politicians never go to jail? Looks like the "good" Congressmen Chris Collins will be seeing the inside of a jail cell for insider trading. Now there's a crime I haven't heard mentioned in a while. Note the bolded part of the quoted text. He and his family of goons avoided over 3/4ths of a million dollars in losses for trying to game the system.

Collins well be trying to clear his name:

In a statement to CNBC, attorneys for Collins vowed to "mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name."

They added: "It is notable that even the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single share of Innate Therapeutics stock. We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated."

The lawyers said Collins will have more to say on the indictment later on Wednesday.

I look forward to hearing more about this story.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

As a conservative, Trump loving libertarian, good.

No matter who it is, they should not be above the law.

Parting shot...have they looked into Feinstein and her husband yet? Equal justice for all, you know....

a reply to: theatreboy

I don't know anything about Feinstein and insider trading. Apparently these charges came about because the Daily Beast did a series of articles in 2017 on this guy.

Congressman in Bed With Foreign Biotech

Congressman Pushed Bills That Would’ve Helped Drug Company He Owns

Congressman Bought Pharma Stock, Pushed Bill That Could Help It, and Bought More

The Feinstein mention was the kneejerk reflection/redirection. You see, apparently when negative news regarding GOP or Trump is posted, it's a typical reaction to point out something another party did so as to paint the guilty in a softer light.

So...

Hillary!
Russians!
Obama!

There we go. Carry on

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Maybe he will get Martha Stewart's old jail cell.
I hear she put a toilet hooch recipe somewhere in her cell.

Draining the swamp knows no party

Lock them up

Well if we're going after politicians for insider trading now, Washington is about to be a ghost town

a reply to: caterpillage

Now now. It's not THAT easy. This only happened cause a news organization exposed him. You still have to prove they did it. You can't just suspect everyone of being guilty and it be so.

good. Guilty people need to be punished, no matter how important they think they are. ALL OF THEM.

Really surprised there aren't any independence requirements for board members preventing family from owning stock. Sure this happens more than reported.

When I worked in management consulting, we couldn't own shares in client companies or it had to be disclosed due to the sensitive nature of the work since we knew what moves the company was making before the general public.

originally posted by: TXRabbit
The Feinstein mention was the kneejerk reflection/redirection. You see, apparently when negative news regarding GOP or Trump is posted, it's a typical reaction to point out something another party did so as to paint the guilty in a softer light.

So...

Hillary!
Russians!
Obama!

There we go. Carry on

First reply to the thread too

But but

But

I would imagine the temptation would be strong if you had some special information. The thing is if you are an honest person you resist these temptations. Sounds like he will get what is deserved.

A few more sealed indictments unsealed. Looks like the real swamp draining will come from all those sealed indictments.

This guy was the second representative to endorse Trump when he came onto the scene, his earliest support and strong to this day. I am not saying Trump is involved or Trump made him do it, but he is swamp material, and became Trump's swamp -- and if all the allegations are true, I'll be glad to see him go.

Chances are he will take the blame for his son and save him from a prison cell. From reading about it this morning, it is a VERY clear case of insider trading, with very clear intentions.

I think it's great.

I just hope the same standard is held to all of them regardless of political party.

originally posted by: jjkenobi
I think it's great.

I just hope the same standard is held to all of them regardless of political party.

Exactly. What's so frustrating is seeing so many politicians get a free pass because they're considered "too powerful."

a reply to: TXRabbit

So NOW you guys have a problem with that?

The hypocrisy is hillary-ous.

Great news!

Drain the swamp!

MAGA!

originally posted by: TXRabbit
The Feinstein mention was the kneejerk reflection/redirection. You see, apparently when negative news regarding GOP or Trump is posted, it's a typical reaction to point out something another party did so as to paint the guilty in a softer light.

So...

Hillary!
Russians!
Obama!

There we go. Carry on

How is this 'negative news'?

I mean it is for this clown who broke the law, but good for "We the People".

a reply to: Krazysh0t


Ummm...cool...another turd gets sucked down the swamp drain...good...

Now on to the rest of them...

Flush away...







YouSir

four more republicans implicated -

Mike Conaway (TX), Doug Lamborn (CO), Billy Long (MO), and Markwayne Mullin (OK)

lol